Those who looked after and rode Shergar agree that he was one of the kindest, gentlest racehorses ever to grace the racetrack. Alan Dukes, the local MP and Irish finance minister, was then woken by a phone call from Mr Berry telling him of Shergar's kidnapping. He seemed unbeatable - until the St Leger, when he trailed in fourth after starting a hot favourite. Swirling mist and driving rain threaten to obscure the view from a ridge up in the Iron Mountains, high above County Leitrim. By far the most popular set of events is that the horse, worth 10million in 1983, was taken for ransom by the IRA thinking it was owned by the fabulously wealthy Aga Khan who would pay a fortune to get the champion back. Just sort of go out there and do your best. There was widespread relief when at the end of his career, instead of being shipped to one of the large American studs as expected, Shergar was returned to his birthplace of Ireland. Photograph: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Although there was some dissent, the members of the syndicate owning shares in Shergar refused to countenance paying over any money and, shortly afterwards, all contact was ended and the mystery deepened. "There Was Blood Everywhere": What Really Happened to Shergar With a distinctive white blaze on his face, four white "socks" and his unusual racing style - he ran with his tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth - Shergar quickly captured the imagination of the British and Irish public. Where is the animal buried? On the night of February 8th masked gunmen invaded the family home of Jim Fitzgerald, the retired chief groom at Ballymany and a father of six children, took him hostage and brought him to Ballymany. The Sunday Telegraph reported that four days after Shergar was seized, the Army Council realized they would never collect a ransom. At gunpoint they led Mr Fitzgerald's wife and their five children into one room and locked the door. Shergar's former jockey Walter Swinburn was distressed by the paper's findings. Even though the Troubles ended a decade ago we were advised "not to spend more than an hour there if you are asking awkward questions". Most investigators accepted from early on, however, that the IRA was to blame. It is used to make some wall and fine arts paintbrushes. There was blood everywhere and the horse even slipped on his own blood. He was caught five miles away by fireman Andy Sheldrick. All that energy, all that life. Police are investigating after human remains were found in a large plastic container last week in a New Jersey neighborhood near New York City. He was a 25/1 shout for the Derby after trainer Michael Stoute decided to prepare him after his maiden season in 1980. Because horses can get pushed out or knocked back and things happen in races . Already, however, there were problems: the kidnappers mistakenly believed that Shergar belonged solely to the Aga Khan when, in fact, the horse was owned by 34 members of the syndicate, who had to agree tactics. He was born in Kildare in 1978 and kidnapped by an armed gang in 1983. Revered Irish racehorse Shergar was taken at gunpoint from Ballymany Stud in County Kildare on February 8, 1983, and never seen again. Shergar's former jockey Walter Swinburn, who rode Shergar at his famous race, was distressed by the findings. The search for the last resting place of Shergar It was the world's most famous racehorse when it was kidnapped by an armed IRA gang in 1983 and Police were Shergar Security was very lax.". One of them, with the revolver, was very aggressive," said Mr Fitzgerald, at his end-of-terrace home in Newbridge, just three miles from the stud. The kidnappers had chosen the day before Ireland's major Goff's racehorse sale - when horse boxes were being driven the length and breadth of the country - to abduct Shergar, thereby making it more difficult for the stallion to be found. Shergar's skull 'found in ditch' - The Independent Ive made some really hard films. I could hardly see it for tears, Doreen Swinburn, Walters mother, remembers of her joy when we speak by telephone. So Lester Piggott, even then the doyen of flat racing, and jockey for Shergars first maiden race at Newbury, stepped in as Shergar swept the field in the Irish Derby, allowing broadcaster Michael OHehir to exclaim on television: Hes winning it so easily! He made it look so easy. (modern). He proved infertile as a stallion, as none of the 34 mares bred to him became pregnant. He loaded Shergar into the horsebox the men had brought with them. The odds shrank to 8/1: Baerlein warned that those odds would again halve if Shergar triumphed at the Chester Vase. Shergar was just five years old when he was snatched in the middle of the night from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare. More are on the way. One of the yarns that grew out of that day is that when the younger Swinburn treated himself to an ice-pop, the vendor offered a cheery Have a nice, day, son, not realising he was serving the Derby-winning jockey. Alison adds: "The letters also set the context for the period, and when we were fitting the jigsaw together, we never found a piece missing. In June 1981 he threw his stable lad and bolted during a workout at Newmarket. According to the former IRA member, the kidnappers' problems became acute early on because the vet who had agreed to look after Shergar pulled out on the night of the horse's abduction. File photograph: The Irish Times. His peerless season, remember, coincided with the dark, muggy summer of the Hunger Strikes. "These were letters which set out not only what happened to Shergar, but also referred to the kidnapping of people.". His frightened family had followed kidnappers' orders to remain silent and it was 5 am yesterday before police were contacted. And when I was looking at this horse, I was thinking: why is there such silence and controversy? A quarter of a century ago, the Ballymany Stud was shielded from the outside world by a five-bar wooden gate with a latch. There was a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads, while Martin Kenny, a Sinn Fein councillor for the town, said: "I have never heard anyone say they knew where Shergar was buried or what happened to him.". In February 1983, Shergar was kidnapped from his stable in Kildare, held for ransom, and brutally killed by his captors who havent been identified. Using a coded phrase - King Neptune - that had been given to Mr Fitzgerald during the kidnap, those holding the horse soon began secret negotiations with a representative of the Aga Khan. Who was the greatest racehorse sire of all time? "We have come for Shergar. They forced him to release the horse, before they also took him away with them. Desert Orchid (11 April 1979 13 November 2006), known as Dessie, was an English racehorse. Shergar and Mr Fitzgerald were put inside. Physically, he was a distinctive beauty: the white blaze on the nose, the four white socks. But detectives admitted they know nothing yet about the gang. His five victories that season included the Irish Derby and Ascot's prestige King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Mystery of Shergar: famous Irish horse kidnap - IrishCentral.com Home Horse How Many Horses Did Shergar Sire? On the racecourse, as a two- and three-year-old, Shergar had been nothing short of sensational, winning the 1981 Derby by 10 lengths, a record distance that century for Britain's biggest flat race. They have narrowed the field, in a manner of speaking, down to a small townland called Aughrasheeling, not far from Ballinamore, and less than 10 miles from the Northern Ireland border. But no contact was made. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. The proud former groom still has framed photographs of Shergar in his hall and living room. Vanilla Ice: loves his racing, baby BBC Vanilla Ice said: I love horses, I love watching them. They all suffered in some way. Shergar was so far out of sight that John Matthias, riding the second-placed Glint of Gold, admitted that in the tumult he was convinced hed won the race. The truth about Shergar racehorse kidnapping By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter examiner.co.uk 27 Jan 2008 It is 25 years since a world-famous racehorse was kidnapped by the IRA, never to be seen again. Searching For Shergar, the work of Erica Starling Productions, will be shown on Sunday at 8pm on BBC2 before being repeated in Ireland on RTE1 at 9.30pm on Tuesday. No. The Aga could have got much more if he had sold Shergar to America. This process is referred to as a caricature of police bungling, as the actual police werent notified until 8 hours after Shergar was taken and the men were long gone from the area. Thieves stole a life-size statue of the triple Grand National winner, Red Rum, from a house in East Meon, Hampshire. I do. Award-winning filmmaker Alison Millar realised she had uncovered gold dust when she was shown the hefty sheaf of letters sent from Maghaberry Prison by Sean O'Callaghan to Mr Clarke. Gerry Reynolds, a businessman and politician who was born and brought up in Ballinamore, said: "There were always a lot of rumours that the individuals involved in the kidnapping of Don Tidey were also involved in the kidnapping of Shergar.". There was blood everywhere, and the horse even slipped on his own blood. Derby winner Shergar was kidnapped by an IRA gang from a stud in Co Kildare 17 years ago. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, The disappearance of champion racehorse Shergar remains a mystery, English jockey Walter Swinburn, 19, on Shergar in 1980, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). They promised more details at noon Yesterday. But as hopes faded, the late Detective Chief Superintendent James Murphy, who was leading the inquiry, uttered the immortal line: "If we find the body, we will treat it like any other murder investigation.". The incident has inspired several books, documentaries, and a film starring Mickey Rourke. "Two years earlier, supermarket owner Ben Dunne was kidnapped by the IRA and a ransom was paid. But having established beyond doubt that the horse was killed by the IRA - though Alison is unable to confirm some reports which said that it was machine-gunned to death after breaking a leg and becoming unmanageable - there remained the question posed by the title of the documentary, Searching for Shergar. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. 'He was a very kind horse. 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The Provisional IRA, strapped for cash to fund its campaign, hatched a plan to kidnap the animal for ransom. The Aga Khan was amazing. An astonishing lack of security made it equally simple for a four-man gang to steal him from the Aga Khan's stud farm in Ireland. But he wanted his champion to stand at his Irish stud. Shergar: kidnapped by the IRA, killed, buried in a bog in north