The record-breaking horse was taken at gunpoint from an Irish stud farm in 1983. More than four decades later, Princess Zahra Aga Khan has offered a clearer account of his fate while leading the family racing operation that produced him.
Shergar won the Epsom Derby by a margin no horse had achieved before or since. Less than two years later, armed men took him from a stud farm in Ireland, demanded a multimillion-pound ransom and disappeared.
The champion horse was never recovered. His remains have never been found, and no one has been convicted over his kidnapping or death.
The case returned to attention this week after Racing Post revisited Shergar’s life and disappearance ahead of the annual Shergar Cup at Ascot, a racing event named in his honour. The report followed an interview Princess Zahra Aga Khan gave to The Telegraph in June, in which she shared what her family now understands happened to the horse.
“We now know the horse was killed within two days,” Princess Zahra told The Telegraph. She said Shergar was killed “in an awful way,” although she did not identify those responsible or disclose where his body was left.
Her account provided a clearer picture of Shergar’s final days, but it did not solve the criminal case. The people who took him have never been formally identified in court.
A horse built for the Derby
Shergar was born in Ireland on March 3, 1978. He was bred and owned by Aga Khan IV, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, and trained in Britain by Michael Stoute.
The official history of the Aga Khan Studs describes him as a chestnut colt by Great Nephew out of the mare Sharmeen. He came from bloodlines that the Aga Khan family had developed over several generations.
Shergar raced eight times during a career that lasted only two seasons. He won six of those races.
As a two-year-old in 1980, he won his first race at Newbury and then finished second in the Futurity Stakes at Doncaster. His performances showed promise, but few outside his stable could have predicted how dominant he would become the following year.
His three-year-old season began at Sandown in April 1981, where he won the Guardian Classic Trial by 10 lengths. At Chester the following month, he won the Chester Vase by 12 lengths.
Those victories made him the clear favourite for the Epsom Derby, one of the oldest and most important races in international horse racing.
On June 3, 1981, Shergar lined up against 17 other horses at Epsom Downs.
Walter Swinburn, his 19-year-old jockey, kept him behind the early leaders before moving forward as the field entered the final part of the race. Once Shergar reached the front, the contest was effectively over.
He pulled farther away from the field and crossed the line 10 lengths ahead of the second-placed horse. Swinburn had already begun easing him down before the finish.
The result remains the largest winning margin in the history of the Epsom Derby.
Shergar then travelled to the Curragh, where he won the Irish Derby by four lengths. Lester Piggott rode him in that race because Swinburn was serving a suspension.
His next major appearance came in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. It was Shergar’s first and only race against older horses, and he again won by four lengths.
The official Aga Khan Studs history says Swinburn later called Shergar the best racehorse he had ever ridden.
Shergar was defeated in his final race, the St Leger at Doncaster, and retired at the end of the 1981 season.
Timeform, an independent organization that assesses racehorses, gave him a rating of 140. The rating placed him among the leading European racehorses of the modern period.
A powerful but gentle horse
Shergar was remembered not only for his speed and physical strength.
Princess Zahra, who was a child during his racing career, told The Telegraph that she remembered everything about him. She described him as exceptionally gentle, saying that even after becoming a breeding stallion, he remained “the kindest horse in the world.”
He was also becoming a national sporting symbol in Ireland. His Derby victory had been followed by large crowds and growing public interest, and his breeding career was expected to keep him at the centre of European racing for years.
That future never came.
A £10 million stallion
After retiring, Shergar returned to Ireland and stood at Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, close to the Curragh racecourse.
His ownership was divided into 40 shares valued at £250,000 each. The arrangement placed his total value at £10 million, a record valuation for a stallion at the time. Each shareholder received breeding rights connected to the horse.
Shergar completed only one breeding season, in 1982.
The Guardian reported that he sired 35 foals before his disappearance. His most successful offspring was Authaal, who later won the Irish St Leger in 1986.
Shergar was preparing for his second breeding season when armed men arrived at Ballymany Stud on the evening of February 8, 1983.
The night Shergar was taken
The attackers entered the home of Shergar’s stud groom, James Fitzgerald, and held members of his family at gunpoint.
Fitzgerald was ordered to take Shergar from his stable and load him into a horsebox. The kidnappers then forced Fitzgerald into another vehicle and drove him around the area before leaving him beside a road.
They gave him a codeword that was intended to be used during ransom negotiations.
Shergar was never seen again.
The kidnappers later demanded £2 million for his return. But negotiations were complicated by Shergar’s ownership structure. He belonged to a syndicate, and the shareholders had to agree on any response.
Princess Zahra told The Telegraph that her father could not make the decision alone, even though he was often blamed for the failure to pay the ransom.
She said there was also a wider concern about where the money might go.
According to Thoroughbred Daily News’ account of the interview, the family feared that the ransom could be “used against human beings.” The kidnappers also failed to provide convincing evidence that Shergar was still alive.
The ransom was not paid, and communication with the kidnappers eventually ended.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army was the main suspect, according to Racing Post and other reports on the case. The kidnapping occurred during the Troubles, when armed republican groups were involved in a violent conflict over Northern Ireland.
However, the IRA did not publicly claim responsibility, the allegation was never established in court and no one was convicted.
Over the years, accounts attributed to former IRA members suggested that those involved were unprepared to control a large and powerful stallion. Different versions of the story claimed Shergar was killed shortly after being taken.
Princess Zahra’s statement that he died within two days supports the long-held belief that he did not survive the kidnapping. But the exact place and circumstances of his death remain unclear.
Princess Zahra and the next generation
Princess Zahra’s comments carry additional weight because she now leads the management team that runs the Aga Khan Studs.
Her father, Aga Khan IV, died in Lisbon on February 4, 2025, at the age of 88. His eldest son, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, was named Aga Khan V and the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims following the unsealing of his father’s will.
The leadership of the Ismaili community and the management of the family’s horse racing and breeding operation are separate roles.
The official Aga Khan Studs website says Princess Zahra has been actively involved in the operation since the 1990s. Her first winner as an owner was Daralbayda at Saint-Cloud in France in 1996.
The organization says she now leads the management team responsible for running the studs.
Princess Zahra worked alongside her father and the operation’s trainers, managers, veterinarians and breeding specialists for decades before his death.
Recent results show that the stable has remained successful during the transition.
Calandagan, an Aga Khan Studs homebred, was named the Longines World’s Best Racehorse of 2025. He received an official rating of 130 after winning four Group 1 races during the year: the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Champion Stakes and Japan Cup.
Another leading horse, Daryz, won the 2025 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, giving the Aga Khan family a record eighth victory in the prestigious Paris race.
Daryz returned in 2026 to win the Prix Ganay and the race renamed the Prix Aga Khan IV. That second victory marked the Aga Khan Studs’ 180th Group 1 success since 1960. The operation’s official racing page now records 181 Group 1 victories by horses owned by Aga Khan IV and Princess Zahra.
More than a century of racing
The modern Aga Khan Studs began in 1921, when Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, started building a racing and breeding operation in Europe.
The family’s horses became known for the green racing silks with red shoulder markings and cap. Those colours have appeared in major races in Britain, Ireland, France and other countries for more than a century.
The operation has stud farms in Ireland and France, five stallions and a broodmare band of around 160 horses. Many of its mares descend directly from bloodlines established during the 1920s.
Aga Khan III won his first British owners’ championship in 1924.
Among his greatest horses was Bahram, who won the English Triple Crown in 1935 by taking the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger. Tulyar was named champion racehorse of 1952 after winning the Derby, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Eclipse Stakes and St Leger.
Aga Khan IV assumed control of the operation in 1960 at the age of 23.
During more than six decades under his direction, horses carrying his colours won more than 160 Group 1 races. The official Aga Khan Studs record credits him with 20 owners’ championships and 15 breeders’ championships.
Group 1 is the highest level of international flat racing and includes races such as the Epsom Derby, Irish Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Shergar became Aga Khan IV’s first Epsom Derby winner in 1981. He was followed by Shahrastani in 1986, Kahyasi in 1988, Sinndar in 2000 and Harzand in 2016.
All five also won the Irish Derby.
Sinndar achieved a result no other three-year-old has matched, winning the Epsom Derby, Irish Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same season in 2000.
Zarkava became another of the operation’s best-known champions. She retired undefeated after seven races, including five Group 1 victories and the 2008 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Other major horses associated with the operation include Blushing Groom, Darshaan, Dalakhani, Azamour, Vadeni and Tahiyra.
The Aga Khan Studs has also developed influential stallions and bloodlines used by breeders far beyond the family’s own racing operation.
A mystery without legal closure
Shergar remains one of the most recognizable horses in that long history.
His racing career lasted only eight races. His breeding career lasted a single season. Yet the scale of his victories and the circumstances of his disappearance kept his name alive long after most champions of his period had been forgotten.
For racing followers, he remains the horse that won the Derby by a record 10 lengths.
For others, he is remembered as the victim at the centre of one of sport’s strangest crimes: a champion taken from his stable by armed men, followed by a ransom demand, a failed investigation and more than four decades without an arrest or a recovered body.
Princess Zahra’s account provides a clearer understanding of when Shergar died, but it cannot answer all the questions that remain.
The location of his remains is still unknown. Those responsible were never held legally accountable.
Shergar’s place in racing history, however, was secured before he disappeared. His record at Epsom still stands, and the racing operation that bred him continues under the management team led by Princess Zahra.
