A common joke when a person experiences a financial windfall and is suddenly spending lavishly is that he or she must have been lucky betting on a horse.

Horse racing is a huge business; prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Federation of Horseracing Authorities says worldwide prize money for races reached nearly $3.5 billion a year and the global betting industry for horse racing generated over $116 billion in yearly revenue. Post-pandemic prize purses are gradually returning to those levels.

Many of the biggest betters in horse racing have never saddled up and the only horse they can name is Mr. Ed; some are so ignorant of horses that they may think a thoroughbred is a fancy brand of bread. But if they hear a horse is a “sure thing” and can make them money, they are all in.

On February 8, 1983, instead of betting on the prowess of a prized race horse, Irish kidnappers bet on the horse’s life. The suspected result is that they made a killing . . . but not at the track.

An Irish colt named Shergar was stolen and negotiations for the stallion’s return ensued for several weeks before being broken off by the presumed kidnappers. Shergar was never found.

Although Irish Republican Army (IRA) officials have repeatedly denied involvement, the paramilitary organization is the suspected abductor. According to an informant, Shergar’s abduction was botched from the beginning and the beautiful horse was killed in a gruesome manner.

Shergar

Shergar was foaled in 1978; his sire was the British race horse Great Nephew. He was trained for racing in Great Britain where he won his first race in September 1980.

The following year, Shergar competed in six races, winning five of them, including the famed Epsom Derby by a record ten lengths. Three weeks later, he won the Irish Sweeps Derby.

Jockey Walter Swinburn Aboard Shergar

At The 1981 Epsom Derby

Shergar’s principal owner was the Aga Khan, who is now the forty-ninth and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism, a denomination within Shia Islam.

Following Shergar’s Epsom Derby win, the Aga Khan sold forty shares in the prized horse, valued at £10 million, approximately $13.5 million. He retained six shares, and created an owners’ syndicate with the remaining thirty-four members.

After Shergar’s disappointing finishes in several races later in 1981, the Aga Khan decided to end the horse’s racing career.

Shergar and the Aga Khan

Shergar was retired to the Ballymany Stud Farm in County Kildare in eastern Ireland, approximately sixty kilometers (thirty-seven miles) southwest of Dublin. The horse proved a cash cow in 1982 as his foals brought in nearly £1 million (a little over $1 million.)

By February 1983, Shergar’s second stud season was about to begin, and he was expected to be even more profitable. But his first mating season was also his last.

Shergar Retired To Ballymany

At approximately 8:30 p.m. on the evening of February 8, 1983, three armed men clad in masks burst into the Ballymany residence of Jim Fitzgerald. The head groom thought the men had come to rob his home, but the item sought was not in the main dwelling.

Fitzgerald’s wife and children were locked in a room while he was taken at gunpoint to Shergar’s stable where the robbers were joined by at least three accomplices also wearing masks. Fitzgerald said one of the men spoke with what sounded like a northern Irish accent while another appeared knowledgeable of horses.

Fitzgerald was ordered to put Shergar in the back of a horsebox and was then told to get into a van. Once in the van, the kidnappers covered Fitzgerald’s face with a coat and drove for what, to him, seemed like an eternity.

Stealing Shergar

After nearly four hours, Fitzgerald was released unharmed near Kilcock, a small town approximately twenty miles north of Ballymany. The kidnappers told him they would call soon and warned him Shergar would be killed if he contacted the Gardai (The Guards; the Irish Police.)

Fitzgerald made his way to a phone and called his brother to retrieve him. The Aga Kahn, in his native Switzerland at the time, was contacted and apprised of the situation. Various Irish government officials were also contacted, but all were hesitant to contact the Gardai because of the kidnappers’ warnings.

Not until 4:00 a.m. on the morning of February 9, seven-and-a-half hours after Shergar was taken, was the Gardai notified of the kidnapping.

Shergar and Jim Fitzgerald  

A series of phone calls was received over the following two days; all were too short to be traced. When a demand of £2 million (approximately $2.75 million) was made on February 11, negotiators issued their own demands: Show proof that Shergar was still alive.

The thieves phoned the following day saying proof that the horse was alive was at the Rosnaree Hotel only a few miles from Ballymany. There, investigators found several Polaroid pictures of a horse; after examination, most of those who worked with Shergar were certain they were of him.

Several of the pictures showed Shergar’s head next to a copy of The Irish News, dated February 11. It could not, however, be determined when the photographs were taken and investigators concluded the images did not constitute proof that Shergar was still alive.

When the kidnappers phoned the following evening, February 12, negotiators told them they were not convinced Shergar was still alive and asked for further proof. The caller said none would be provided and angrily hung up.

Despite negotiators’ repeated public pleas on television and in the newspapers to reestablish communication with the thieves, Shergar’s kidnappers did not contact them again.

A Polaroid Believed of Shergar

The kidnapping of Shergar was well executed, but the ransom demands were anything but smooth.

In one call the abductors demanded part of the ransom be £100 notes, which did not exist. In addition, during the course of the negotiations, it became clear the thieves believed the Aga Khan was the sole owner of Shergar as they frequently demanded that he specifically pay the ransom. They apparently were unaware of Shergar’s syndicate of owners.

Bizarre Ransom Demands

Investigators believe Irish Republican Army (IRA) members are the most likely abductors of Shergar. The late Sean O’Callaghan, a former IRA member planted in the organization as a Gardai supergrass (the Irish term for informant) claimed the IRA’s intent was to ransom Shergar and use the money to purchase arms for use in the Irish Republican movement.

O’Callaghan said he was told that Shergar’s kidnapping went awry from the beginning as the horse became hyper in unfamiliar surroundings and injured his left front leg. The enlisted veterinarian had backed out at the last minute and none of the kidnappers were able to calm the horse.

O’Callaghan further claimed he was told that as Shergar grew increasingly out of control, the decision was made to kill him but to still try to obtain the ransom. The prized horse, O’Callaghan believed, was killed within a day or two after, or perhaps even on the same day he was taken.

Shergar Is Said To Have Panicked . . .

The exact date of Shergar’s killing and the location of his remains are a mystery, but one thing O’Callaghan believed clear is that the horses’ death was slow and gruesome.

O’Callaghan said he was told two men entered the stable where Shergar was held and machine gunned him to death. According to the informants, the horse’s death was slow and agonizing, as it took an extraordinary amount of gunfire to finally kill him.

By the time the carnage was over, the stable was said to literally look like a bloodbath.

. . . And To Endured A Slow and Awful Death 

Several sources, including O’Callaghan, The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer, believe Shergar may be buried near Aughnasheelin, a town of strong republicanism in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, northwest of County Kildare, roughly one-hundred thirty kilometers (eighty miles) from where he was “horsenapped.”

 

Strands of Shergar’s mane and tail are preserved; pathologists are hopeful they contain enough DNA to confirm an identification. Examination of several equine skeletons found in Ireland have, so far, confirmed none of them are of Shergar.

Buried At Ballinamore?

A painting of Shergar by horse racing writer and artist Harvey Mason.

Shergar

1978-83

Jim Fitzgerald, Shergar’s groom, with a photo of his beloved horse, in a 2012 photo.

Jim And Shergar

A 2017 stamp honoring Shergar.

Shergar’s Stamp

SOURCES:

• The Irish News
• New York Times
• The Observer
• The Sunday Telegraph
• The Times of London