Shergar

He may be remembered for the tragedy surrounding his terrible death, but Julian Muscat points out that Shergar’s unsurpassed achievements on the track should not be forgotten

SHERGAR’S ORIGINS

Bay colt, foaled 3 March 1978. By Great Nephew out of Sharmeen (by Val De Loir)

Owner/breeder: HH Aga Khan IV

Trainer: Michael Stoute

Jockey: Walter Swinburn Shergar was the best produce of Great Nephew, who was champion sire in Britain and Ireland in 1975 – when he sired Derby winner Grundy – and again in 1981, the year of Shergar. Shergar’s dam, Sharmeen, produced two further Pattern-race winners in Shernazar and Sharamana. Sharmeen is a seventhgeneration descendent of the Aga Khan’s celebrated broodmare, Mumtaz Mahal.

IT is often claimed that the most famous racehorse in the world is the three-time Grand National winner, Red Rum. That assumption rings hollow. The horse in question has to be Shergar, whose 10-length Derby romp in 1981 remains a record-winning distance for the race, but his grip on the public conscience is down to his subsequent kidnapping, the violent end he met and the ghoulish series of lies and fabrications that spawned from the fact his body has never been found. This reprehensible denouement ensures that Shergar’s story resonates more for its infamy than the fame he acquired for his exceptional deeds on the racecourse.

“There is no mystery left,” says Des Leadon, head of clinical pathology at the Irish Equine Centre, whose veterinary expertise in the field made him the first point of contact whenever the Gardaí (Irish police) thought they might have retrieved Shergar’s body. “We know what happened to Shergar in sufficient detail, so it is not something we should dwell on. It’s an unfortunate episode in history now long gone.”