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Early Saturday morning (December 29), employees at the Fulton County Fairgrounds reported a horse missing from their stables.

"Once the officer and the deputy got out there, they found that there was two other horses missing also," says Roy Miller, Chief Deputy with the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.

"I've been on 24 years and its never happened in the 24 years I've been on," says Fairground Speed Director Bill Serna.

Three horses total were stolen from the grounds between late Friday night and early Saturday morning.

The horses, Oat Matt Donald, New Moon and Shorty B., are standardbred horses, but their value is said to be about $5,000 each.

"These horses were pacers and trotters. And they used them for racing perposes. So maybe that's what the interest was in them," says Miller.

They say the area does not have regular security.

"We have deputies patrolling it at different times, but nobody is here 24 hours a day," says Serna.

They've also put the word out to horse auction houses about the theft, and each horse has an identifying mark.

Serna says, "They have a lip tattoo. As race horses they need that so they can identify them."

But the amount of horses in the Fulton County area makes investigation difficult.

"We see a lot of cattle trailers, horse trailers in fulton county because we're a rural area and there's a lot of horses," says Miller.

And because the Ohio Turnpike is just a stone's throw away, the chance that the horses will be recovered seems slim, but the horse racing community is small. And according to officials, word of mouth within that circuit, travels fast.

So there is hope that the three horses will be found.