“Where is Shergar?” read the headline in the ‘Daily Express’ on February 10, 1983, the morning after Shergar, the 1981 Derby winner, was spirited away from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare, never to be seen again. No-one has ever officially claimed reponsibility for his kidnapping, although suspicion fell on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at the height of the Troubles, and his remains have never been found.
On the racecourse, Shergar enjoyed his finest hour – or finest 2 minutes and 44.21 seconds, to be exact – on the undulations of Epsom Downs on June 3, 1981. Owned by Prince Karim al-Husseini, the late Aga Khan IV, and trained by Michael (later Sir Michael) Stoute, Shergar had won both the Sandown Classic Trial and the Chester Vase by wide margins on his two previous starts and was fully expected to win the Derby, being sent off 10/11 favourite in a field of 18 runners.
Nevertheless, his performance at Epsom was nothing less than jaw-dropping. Well placed from the start, Shergar moved sweetly into the lead at the top of the home straight, and when asked for an effort by 19-year-old Walter Swinburn – having his first ride in the Derby – so opened up a clear lead. With still over a furlong left to run, BBC Radio 2 commentator Peter Bromley was already in raptures, exclaiming, “There’s only one horse in it! You need a telescope to see the rest!”
In the closing stages, Swinburn looked over both shoulders, more than once, for non-existent dangers and even had time to give Shergar a pat on the neck as he eased down some distance from the winning post. Even so, the winning margin, of 10 lengths was, and still is, the widest in the history of the Epsom Classic. For the record, Glint Of Gold finished second, and Scintillating Air third, beaten a further two lengths.