On the night of February 8th, 1983, the most valuable race horse in the world was taken at gunpoint from the Ballymany Stud in Kildare. 35 years on, Shergar has never been found. A new documentary, Searching For Shergar, claims to shed new light on the case. Its creators believe they now know the sequence of events following that terrible night in February. Documentary maker Alison Millar, Former Bloodstock Consultant David Horgan and Racing Writer and Historian Guy Williams joined Sean O’Rourke on the Today programme.
Jim Fitzgerald worked at Ballymany stud in Kildare in 1983. It was home to Shergar and some of the most highly-valued race horses in the country. In a clip played during the show, he explained what happened on the night in question.
“We were in the sitting room and the next thing a knock came at the door. And these gangsters came in. With guns. They said what they were there for. So, they brought me down to the stable where the horse was. And I put him in a small horse box for them gangsters to take him away. They took me away in a van, three of them…I thought of a lot of things. There was a lot of people missing at that time. They pulled up and they told me, ‘We’re letting you out now. And don’t look back’.”
Guy Williams put Shergar in context in terms of skill. Was the horse overhyped?
“Nobody quite knew [how good Shergar was] until the Epsom Derby. And then they realised. Because no horse before and no horse still has won the Epsom Derby by ten lengths, which Shergar did.”
Shergar was owned by spiritual leader the Aga Khan, who decided that it would be more profitable to syndicate the horse between 40 people and put it to stud rather than continue a racing career. One of those people was the (now retired) vet Stan Cosgrove, who features centrally in the documentary. Bloodstock consultant David Horgan told Sean that Stan was “maybe the world’s leading equine vet” at the time and was “highly regarded” by the Aga Khan.
“When Stan was offered a share in this animal worth a quarter of a million, sterling, it was an enormous privilege and it was an enormous compliment to pay to a vet because these were like gold dust. This was a £10million syndication (now worth £60m), the most valuable up to that time.“
One stand-out from this case is how the media coverage quickly became farcical. Chief Superintendent James Murpy famously gave (as BBC journalist Nick Witchell put it) a “loquacious news conference in which he revealed nothing”. Even one of the today’s contributors, Guy Williams, found himself being questioned in the horse’s disappearance because of an ill-advised joke.
“We had an owner in the North who was being decidedly sticking about paying his bills. So, to try to cajole money out of him, I resorted to sending him Telexes in the name of the horse [Shergar), saying that death by the assassin’s knife would be better than slow starvation.”
Unbeknownst to Guy, these telexes were not reaching his delinquent debtor in the North. They were being intercepted at Dublin Castle. Guy was brought in for Garda questioning and quickly released.
But any levity associated with the story loses its lustre when the cost to certain individuals is analysed. Stan Cosgrove’s position meant that he was one of the people who suffered the most financially when Shergar was taken, having parted with £155,000 to the syndicate. The insurance company refused to pay out without evidence that the horse had died within the insured period. And it would only get worse for Stan. Alison explained that Stan found himself at the centre of a Garda sting, giving the Gardaí £80,000 to act as a partial ransom. The sting was a bust and the money was lost.
“It’s ridiculous to think that that would happen, that Stan was asked to stand up some money for ‘ransom’ to lure these guys out. It’s bonkers. But those days were different. There was a trust…he took the word from Senior Detectives who had been given word from this source.”
The attempted sting seems quite innocent by today’s standards. But Alison was keen to point out that Stan was being told to try this by the Guards. Why wouldn’t he?
“A lot of it became a joke. And it wasn’t a joke for any of these people, you know? It was awful. And all Stan ever wanted to do was…get him back because he was iconic. And make it okay.”
Going back to that cold night in February 1983 when Jim Fitzgerald was left on the side of the road. What happened next? Theories and rumours have circulated for decades but Alison believes they can now pin down a pretty accurate sequence of events. Alison believes that Shergar became distressed on the journey, injured himself in the box and was shot by his kidnappers before being buried on a farm in Aughnasheelin, Leitrim. She acknowledged that reluctance and fear lingers today in the locality but appealed to anyone who may have more specific coordinates to share what they know.
“It’d be lovely if we dug him up and Stan got his money back...It’s not someone’s brother or sister. I mean, it’s a horse. So, why not just give the horse back?“
Listen back to the full discussion on Today with Sean O’Rourke here.
Searching for Shergar will air on RTÉ1 on the 31st of July at 9.30pm.