We’ll never know who stole the Wonder Horse

FEB 9, 1983

NO one has ever revealed what became of Shergar.

His disappearance this week in 1983 sparked a huge hunt.

The amazing colt had been named European Horse of the Year just two years earlier, the same year he was retired.

He took to the stud world as he’d taken to racing, with 42 mares soon expecting, all of which made Shergar worth even more money.

This, sadly, attracted criminals, who kidnapped Shergar and James Fitzgerald, head groom at the County Kildare stables of Shergar’s owner, the Aga Khan.

Mr Fitzgerald was released four hours later, 40 miles away, and the police placed listening devices in his home, awaiting contact from the kidnappers.

Sure enough, on February 10 a call demanded a £2 million ransom, which dropped by the end of the day to just £40,000.

This would have been just £1000 from each of Shergar’s 40 shareholders, but they were determined to deter similar crimes and refused to pay it.

There then followed countless false alarms, hoax calls and mistaken “sightings”, but the fabulous horse was never seen again.

Some believe the IRA were involved, others the Mafia, and one informer claimed the horse had been machine-gunned when the ransom plan looked set to fail.

That would have been a dreadful end for a magnificent creature.

In his prime, Shergar had been nicknamed the Wonder Horse, and his brilliant trainer Michael Stoute admitted: “Shergar was the best horse I have ever trained, and I only hope to God nothing happens to him.”

At his peak, he had won the 1981 Epsom Derby by the longest winning margin of all time, 10 lengths. He also clinched the Irish Derby that year along with the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Chester Vase.

He had even set a course record at Newbury in his first-ever race.

Sadly, Walter Swinburn, the talented teenage jockey who rode Shergar to Derby glory, passed away just a few weeks ago.

He had felt Shergar had the Derby in his grasp, but even he was shocked at how easily the horse managed to do it.

Lester Piggott was jockey for Shergar’s next race, when he won the Irish Derby at an “exercise canter”, as commentator Peter O’Sullevan described it.

After all this time, we’ll probably never know what happened to Shergar, the Wonder Horse.

Shergar won the Derby by the longest winning margin