Shergar
Shergar was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. After a very successful season in 1981 he was retired to the Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, Ireland. In 1983 he was stolen from the stud, and a ransom of £2 million was demanded; it was not paid, and negotiations were soon broken off by the thieves. In 1999 a supergrass, formerly in the Provisional Irish Republican Army, stated they stole the horse. The IRA has never admitted any role in the theft.
The Aga Khan, Shergar's owner, sent the horse for training in Britain in 1979 and 1980. Shergar began his first season of racing in September 1980 and ran two races that year, where he won one and came second in the other. In 1981 he ran in six races, winning five of them. In June that year he won the 202nd Epsom Derby by ten lengths—the longest winning margin in the race's history. Three weeks later he won the Irish Sweeps Derby by four lengths; a month after that he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by four lengths. In his final race of the year he came in fourth, and the Aga Khan decided to retire him to stud in Ireland.
After Shergar's Epsom Derby win, the Aga Khan sold forty shares in the horse, valuing it at £10 million. Retaining six shares, he created an owners' syndicate with the remaining thirty-four members. Shergar was stolen from the Aga Khan's stud farm by an armed gang on 8 February 1983. Negotiations were conducted with the thieves, but the gang broke off all communication after four days when the syndicate did not accept as true the proof provided that the horse was still alive. In 1999 Sean O'Callaghan, a former member of the IRA, published details of the theft and stated that it was an IRA operation to raise money for arms. He said that very soon after the theft, Shergar had panicked and damaged his leg, which led to him being killed by the gang. An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph concluded that the horse was shot four days after the theft. No arrests have ever been made in relation to the theft. Shergar's body has never been recovered or identified; it is likely that the body was buried near Aughnasheelin, near Ballinamore, County Leitrim.
In honour of Shergar, the Shergar Cup was inaugurated in 1999. His story has been made into two screen dramatisations, several books and two documentaries.
Background and early training
Shergar was a Thoroughbred bay colt with a white blaze, four white socks and a wall eye. He was foaled on 3 March 1978 at Sheshoon—the private stud of the Aga Khan IV—near the Curragh Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland. Shergar was sired by Great Nephew, a British stallion whose wins included the Prix du Moulin and Prix Dollar in France in 1967. Great Nephew's other progeny included Grundy, Mrs Penny and Tolmi. Shergar's dam was Sharmeen, a seventh-generation descendant of Mumtaz Mahal, a horse that is described by the National Sporting Library as "one of the most important broodmares of the 20th Century".In 1978 the Aga Khan—the leader of Nizari Ismailism, philanthropist and horse owner—announced he would send some of his yearlings for training in England. For a trainer, he chose Michael Stoute, who was based at Newmarket. Stoute had a good year in 1978, and had trained the winners of the Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks with Fair Salinia, and the Gold Cup with Shangamuzo. Shergar was sent into training with Stoute in 1979, as the Aga Khan's second year of sending horses to England.
According to Stoute and Ghislain Drion—the manager of the Aga Khan's Irish studs—Shergar was easy to break, and had a good temperament. He responded very well to training, particularly in September 1980, when the jockey Lester Piggott rode him in the run-up to Shergar's debut race.
Racing career
1980: two-year-old season
On 19 September 1980 Shergar ran his first race, the Kris Plate, with Piggott as his jockey. The race was open to two-year-old colts and geldings over a straight at Newbury. Listed as favourite with odds of 11–8, he kept in behind the leaders before opening up and winning by lengths. Richard Baerlein, the racing correspondent for The Observer, thought Shergar's run was the best from a two-year-old that season. After the race Stoute said the horse would run one more race that year to gain experience, before resting until the following year.Shergar's second race was the William Hill Futurity Stakes at Doncaster, run on 25 October 1980. He was again ridden by Piggott, with odds of 5–2 in a very experienced field of seven. Shergar sat behind the pace-setting leader for much of the race; when that horse faded, the running was taken up by Beldale Flutter. Shergar challenged for the lead, but Beldale Flutter pulled away and won by lengths; Shergar came in second. After the race, Michael Seely, the racing correspondent of The Times, thought Shergar's run was significant, and that he was "a magnificent stamp of a horse", whose odds of 25–1 for the next year's Derby were worth considering.
1981: three-year-old season
In late 1980 and early 1981, Shergar filled out; by April he was stronger. Stoute had decided that Shergar should run in that year's Derby, and planned the season accordingly. The first race to prepare him was the Guardian Newspaper Classic Trial, run at Sandown on 25 April 1981, where he was ridden by Walter Swinburn. In a 9-horse, -mile race, Shergar raised his pace after a mile and won by 10 lengths. Baerlein had written in his column before the race that at 25–1, the odds for Shergar to win the Derby were excellent. After the win, he noted them shortening to 8–1, where, "the bet is still worth pressing"; he continued "If ... wins his next race at Chester or the Ladbroke Lingfield Trial as easily, he will be down to less than 4–1. Surely this is the time to bet like men."As further training for the Derby, Stoute decided that Shergar needed practice on a left-hand cornered course; he selected Chester, where the Chester Vase was run on 5 May 1981. After keeping pace with the leaders, with half a mile to go, Swinburn urged Shergar to increase speed, and he did, overtaking the leaders and going clear to win by 12 lengths.
On 3 June 1981 Shergar ran in the Derby. Set over a mile course at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, the Derby is a Group 1 flat race open to three-year-old Thoroughbred colts and fillies. After the top of the uphill straight start of the course, Shergar was well-placed and moving through the other runners. At Tattenham Corner—the final bend of the course—Shergar took the front of the race and opened up a lead over the others. Commentating on the race, Peter Bromley informed listeners that "there's only one horse in it—you need a telescope to see the rest!" Swinburn eased off the pace with two furlongs to go, and won by ten lengths. It was the largest winning margin of any Epsom Derby. John Matthias, the jockey of the second-placed horse Glint of Gold, said that "I thought I'd achieved my life's ambition. Only then did I discover there was another horse on the horizon." In the light of Shergar's run of wins, particularly the Derby, Baerlein wrote that the horse was one of the finest he had seen.
While out on the gallops on 15 June, Shergar threw his rider, ran through a hedge onto the road and trotted along to the local village. He was spotted by a local resident, who followed the horse until it stopped to graze on a hedge, and then led him back to the stables. Shergar was unharmed during the event, and Stoute recalled "it's very lucky nothing happened to him; there's a crossing there, and it's a difficult thing".
By the time the Irish Derby was run at the Curragh, on 27 June 1981, Swinburn was suspended following an infringement at Royal Ascot, so Piggott returned to ride Shergar. At the half-way point in the race, Shergar was in third place, but increased his pace to take the lead with three furlongs to go. He slowed during the last furlong, and won by four lengths. As the horse approached the line, Michael O'Hehir, the commentator, informed viewers that "He's winning it so easily; it's Shergar first and the rest are nowhere". After the race Piggott told reporters that he had no doubt that Shergar would win as the horse never struggled in the race. He also said that Shergar was one of the best horses he had ever raced on.
Following Shergar's Epsom Derby win, a group of US horse owners had offered $40 million to syndicate the horse. The Aga Khan turned down the offer, and instead decided to syndicate Shergar for £10 million at £250,000 for each of the forty shares—a record price at the time; the Aga Khan kept six shares for himself and the others were sold individually to buyers from nine countries. The shareholders had the option each year of selecting a mare to be covered—or of selling that option on. The stud fees were £60,000–80,000 per cover, which meant that shareholders could expect to make a profit from stud within four years.
Shergar had a break of almost a month until he ran in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot on 25 July 1981. The race was slow-paced to start and Shergar was boxed in by other horses, but found a way out by the time the leaders had reached the final straight, and accelerated to win by four lengths. For Baerlein, the race showed that Shergar was the best horse he had ever seen race; Michael Phillips, the racing correspondent for The Times, wrote that the win "proved that Shergar is a cut above the average but not exceptional". Phillips continued that Shergar "failed to fill me, and many more besides, with the magic that was in the air after Nijinsky and Mill Reef had won the same race".
The Aga Khan and Stoute considered entering Shergar into the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe that autumn, but decided that he needed one more race to prepare. They entered him into what would be his final race, the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster on 12 September 1981, with Swinburn as the jockey. Ten days before the race, a story was published in the racing newspaper Sporting Life that Shergar had not been practising well and had become "mulish"; Stoute stated that the rumours were untrue. Shergar was running well in the race, although the soft ground was not to his liking, but on the final straight, when Swinburn tried to get him to accelerate to the front, the horse would not respond. Shergar came in fourth, lengths behind Cut Above, the winner.
Surprised by the manner of the loss, Stoute and the Aga Khan ran a series of tests on Shergar. All showed the horse was in good health, and he worked well in training after the race. Unwilling to risk the horse without knowing what had happened at the St Leger, the Aga Khan did not enter him into the Arc, and instead retired him to the Ballymany Stud, near the Curragh. He later explained to a racing journalist:
He was just an exceptional athlete. All through the spring and summer he completely dominated European racing in a very dramatic manner, and after he had run so uncharacteristically in the St. Leger, we knew something had gone wrong, but we didn't know what it was, so it was an easy decision to retire him before the Arc.