This Famous Racehorse Was Stolen In 1983, And Then His Captors Sent A Ransom Note Demanding $2 Million Dollars, But He Was Never Seen Again
Did you know that there is a famous missing horse case that is still open? The case surrounds Shergar, a stunning racehorse from Ireland that won two major races and stole the hearts of many horse racing lovers.
Unfortunately, not long after his big victories, Shergar was taken from his stable and was never seen again.
Shergar was born in Kildare, Ireland, in 1978. He was owned by the Aga Khan IV and trained by Michael Stoute. Shergar was known for his surprisingly quiet and content personality as a stallion. He also bonded with his jockey, Walter Swinburn.
Shergar had an extremely successful racing season in 1981, winning in the Derby at Epsom and the Irish Derby. By the end of his racing career, people were offering Aga Khan over $30,000,000 for the rights to breed Shergar.
After one miraculous season, Aga Khan turned down the lucrative offers and retired Shergar to stud and live in the stables at Ballymany Stud in Ireland in October of 1981.
But then, in 1983, a horrible incident happened that still has people searching for answers today.
On February 8th, 1983, Jim Fitzgerald, the head groom at Ballmany Stud, remembers three masked men entering his home, demanding that he take them to Shergar in the stables. One of the men had a pistol and was very aggressive.
The intruders ordered Jim to guide Shergar into a horse box or horse trailer attached to a truck, and he watched as the intruders devastatingly drove away with him, unable to see which direction they went in.
Then, the men returned and ordered Jim to lie on the floor of a van with a covering over his face. The men drove Jim around for four hours and eventually dropped him off in a village about 20 miles away from home. They told him not to contact the police or his family would be harmed.
Alex – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
However, the intruders told Jim to expect a ransom call from them and gave him a code to remember.
When Jim returned home, the authorities weren’t informed of the incident until Shergar had already been missing for eight hours. They had no leads. Eventually, a call was made from Shergar’s captors, demanding over $2 million in exchange for his return.
Not wanting to inspire a chain of stallion kidnappings, Aga Khan and those with a share in Shergar chose not to pay the ransom. During the negotiation process, the captors anonymously sent Polaroid photos of Shergar to try and prove he was still alive.
But once the ransom wasn’t met, Shergar’s captors stopped calling, and negotiations ceased.
No one could figure out where he was, but many suspected he had been taken by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who were in need of funds to continue their activities.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s when an imprisoned IRA informant named Sean O’Callaghan claimed that Shergar was killed by his captors within hours of his kidnapping because he had become too excited, hurt himself, and couldn’t reach a veterinarian. It was also alleged that Shergar had been buried in the countryside near the border of Northern Ireland.
However, those who investigated Shergar’s disappearance could not find evidence supporting Sean’s story, so the tragic case has technically remained open.
In Shergar’s honor, the Goodwood Racecourse in England inaugurated a racing event called the Shergar Cup in 1999.
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