World’s media in Lecale on hunt for stolen Shergar

15 February 2023

FORTY years ago the world’s media descended on the normally quiet hamlet of Ballee, outside Downpatrick, following a sensational crime which remains unsolved to this day.

The kidnapping of wonder-horse Shergar, winner of the Derby and worth millions of pounds, was headline news across the globe.

Within hours of the grab, a phone call was made to the home of Ballee horse trainer Jeremy Maxwell by a person claiming to represent the kidnappers, believed to have been a renegade IRA gang.

Over the following days Mr Maxwell’s home and stables were besieged by the media as negotiations for Shergar’s release took place.

However, it soon became clear that the horse’s owners would not pay the $3 million dollars demanded by the kidnappers. Shergar was never seen again. It is believed that he was killed by a a machine-gun.

The IRA never admitted that it was responsible for the kidnapping and no-one was ever charged or brought to justice. Forty years on, the story continues to thrill and bewilder in equal measure.

At the time Shergar was the most famous racehorse in the world. He had won the 1981 Derby by a record margin, as well as the Irish Derby, and was syndicated for £20 million by his owner, the Aga Khan, when sent to stud after his racing career ended.

He was just five years old when he was kidnapped by a gang of men in balaclavas from the Aga Khan’s Ballymany Stud in Co Kildare on the evening of February 8, 1983.

The horse’s groom was also taken by the kidnappers, but was later released. He found his way to a telephone and rang his brother. The phone call led to a series of further calls between Shergar’s shareholders, his vet, racing associates and several Irish Government ministers.

Incredibly, the police were not informed of what had happened until eight hours after the abduction, by which time the call was made to the Maxwell home.

The call was taken by Mr Maxwell’s former wife, Judy, who told the Recorder at the time: “I wondered why on earth the caller had wanted to contact us? Did he know Jeremy, or did he just look us up in Yellow Pages?

“It goes without saying that I was excited when the second call came from the same man later that morning and he asked us to travel to a local hotel to take a further message.

“Jeremy, myself and some friends travelled to the Abbey Lodge, near Downpatrick, but, as we were entering the foyer, the call arrived and, before I had time to answer it, the man had hung up.

“I was disappointed for I was beginning to get a real kick out of the mystery. Would the man ring back or would this be the end of the story? We were soon to find out.

“After waiting for an hour at the hotel for nothing to happen we drove back home and it was then that the pace began to get hotter. At around four o’clock in the afternoon our mysterious caller rang again giving his code word and told me he wanted £1,000 for each of the 40 shares in Shergar, which, he said, he reckoned wasn’t a great deal of money for the syndicate to pay,” she added.

Meanwhile, a massive cross-border hunt for the horse was taking place. It was reported that police in the Irish Republic had offered an over $150,000 reward for his return.

Forty years on, Mr Maxwell believes that the intensity of the hunt and the owners’ refusal to pay up may have sealed Shergar’s fate.

Mr Maxwell also believes that the calls made to his house were genuine, but were a decoy while other negotiations were taking place.

“The person who rang us was definitely part of the plot because we were contacted before the news was out that Shergar had been taken,” he said.

“The kidnappers were also in discussions with the owners in the South. These were some of the richest men in the world and they were never going to deal with kidnappers.

“The whole of the country was looking for Shergar. Properties were being searched. Every vehicle towing a horse box was being stopped. There was no chance of him being successfully released. After a couple of days the kidnappers realised they were getting nowhere. There was never going to be a good outcome.

It was the Maxwell home which received the dreaded call that Shergar had died.

“The most authoritative article I have read stated that he was shot with a machine-gun, but nobody knows that for certain,” Mr Maxwell said.

Reflecting on the events of 40 years ago, he added: “It was certainly a big story at the time. It was interesting to say the least having the world’s media at Ballee. We even put a mass killer off the front pages for three days.”

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