Chapter 1: What happened to the racehorse Shergar?
A prized racehorse, an overnight kidnapping, and a ransom gone awry. A legacy gone in the blink of an eye, and a case that rocked the horse racing community forever. Today, we're investigating Shergar, the missing racehorse. This is Red Web. Welcome back, Task Force, to another episode of Red Web, the podcast all about unsolved mysteries, true crime and the unknown.
I am your resident mystery enthusiast, Trevor Collins, and joining me hearing this case for the very first time, Alfredo Diaz. Oh, horse races, big money in horse races. Oh, yeah. Big hats, too. That's true. That's the whole look. You got to go with a big old hat. Yeah, it's just never been something that's that I've been like, I want to go see a horse race. You know what I mean? Yeah.
You know, I feel like it would be cool in person, but I've never thought like, let me go do that. And I feel like that applies to like sports.
Chapter 2: What were the circumstances surrounding Shergar's kidnapping?
There might be a sport that you're just like, I don't care to go watch. But if you go watch in person. It's like, oh, this is a great time. You know what I mean? Sure. Like, hockey is one of them. I just, you know, I don't really follow hockey. That's a sport that I don't follow. But I know that I go to a hockey game, it's going to be a good time. You know what I mean?
Same, you know, maybe like cricket or something like that. Okay, well, cricket. You know what I mean? Yeah. I respect these things. But I'll go watch a game. But like, yeah, if I go there, I'm sure it'd be a great time. So absolutely. And they're just majestic creatures, horses, man. They're just smart and probably closely what a man's best friend's dog for sure.
Chapter 3: How did Shergar's early career shape his legacy?
Horses, I'd say is up there. You know what I mean? In terms of just like a companion and like as humanity kept going, there's definitely a certain age where like horses are so important. Oh, absolutely. And cattle and ox. A luxury and then a commodity. You know what I mean? So like, yeah, for sure. I feel like horses are the friends you don't tell your dog about. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Also, it's just easier to have a dog over a horse. That's true. That's true. A horse comes through the kitchen. It's a problem. Right. Or damn, that's a big kitchen. You know what? It has to be a big kitchen for that. And yeah, horses are really interesting, beautiful creatures.
And because of that, I do want to highlight, this is one of the very few, maybe the first episode that we've done that surrounds an animal. And as such, every now and then, I like to remind you all that in the description, we will put sensitive topics in case you need those. Of the things we're going to talk about in that episode today, I will remind you that that is there again.
Because again, we're talking about an animal and the potential... death and potential cruelty. We don't know all the facts. This is an unsolved case, but I want to be very forthcoming about some of these things because especially when it's an animal, it's an innocent creature and that just, it breaks the heart. But this is a very interesting topic. This happened in the early 80s. Okay.
And I'm going to break down everything about this case, starting with Sugar. And by the way, my Midwesterner wants to come out and say Sugar. I know that's not right. But if I do that, just go with it, Task Force. Just nod and smile. Just know that Indie Boy is trying to say Sugar. And that's how it's said. Also, just as you talked about it earlier, just anyone that's seen Men in Black. Sugar.
Water. Sugar. It's like, I'm going to go and say Sugar.
especially knowing the task force we watch movies and and men in black i'm sure as a movie many of the task force i would bet has seen they're gonna be thinking that absolutely in fact why haven't we done that for movie club yet that's insane that makes sense why haven't we i'm just sitting here thinking about it like that makes so much sense to see men in black I think I got it in 4K.
Right there is second shelf. There it is. The thicker, the trilogy in 4K. Oh, yeah. You can see the trilogy is thick. And I'm sure it just says MIB. Absolutely. That's what it does. But yeah. So speaking of Movie Club, let me give some shout outs as to what's going on at redwebpod.com where every single week we have at least one thing going on. Most of the time, two.
This Wednesday, if you want to come hang out with us live, as we like to do every month, Wednesday at 6 p.m. Central Time, we are recording our behind-the-scenes podcast, Break Room. It's happening live for our Buff members and above. And then, of course, if you want to see that recording the next month, we do that for our Elite members and above.
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Chapter 4: What was the ransom demand for Shergar's return?
Now, this individual, I should say Aga Khan IV is actually a title because he was born as Shah Kareem al-Husseini and was bestowed this title at the age of 20 by his grandfather, who was Aga Khan III. So when I say Aga Khan, this is who I'm referring to.
This is kind of the owner, but I'll kind of lightly break down the ownership of this horse and how it goes, because if you are like me and you're unfamiliar with horse racing and ownership of race horses, it's kind of interesting. It's there's almost like at some point the issue shares to co-own this horse. And so it's really it's kind of interesting. I've never kind of looked into this before.
Now Khan was an Islamic leader and successful businessman. This is where his money I'm sure comes from. And he owned many breeding and stud farms throughout Europe and the UK. He also owned one of the largest horse racing and breeding operations in France. And in all of those areas, by the way, he has citizenships. He's got at least four or five different citizenships.
Jeez, a lot of money in horse races. If you have a like a top tier horse, you're talking millions. No joke. Millions in semen and dollars. Well, yeah, because like especially because a lot of the I was watching Business Insider. I love Business Insider. Like it was like most expensive things. And one of the things was just horse human because they all stem from like one like elite alpha horse.
And then from there, people spend like millions of dollars for like a small bit of like you know the semen from that horse and hopes to like breed their own champion and then they can have their own line right and so it's just it all like comes all the way back to like one horse and it's just like
millions of dollars for that because it's like yeah you lots of money in horse racing you know you get a million dollars from a horse that's a pedigree horse good odds and then um you know you breed them you get your own horse and then if that horse does well like this one does and i'm sure i mean like what he's doing is he's breeding that horse and and then you just make keep making money
right sponsorships reward money for winning these derbies yeah the money do floweth and i would imagine that it's like a high dollar per volume right like we always think of like what's the gas price which is dollars per gallon i would hate to see what a dollar per gallon in this arena would look like but it would probably completely dwarf that of what gasoline or something else oh yeah it's that's a lot of money definitely a lot of money
So like many of the foals under Khan's care, Shergar was sent to England for training between the ages of one and two. So old enough to kind of trot around, but now in the formative years, let's have you under world-class training. And Shergar was trained actually by a man named Michael Stout, who recalled that Shergar was a gentle horse and responded very well to the training.
It seemed that he was very receptive and dare I say, malleable to what the trainers were looking for the horse to do as of responding and running and doing all these things. Of course, it's difficult to train a wily horse. And so Sugar out the gate is definitely, you know, drawing attention. And then in September of 1980, Sugar makes his racing debut.
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Chapter 5: What theories exist about Shergar's disappearance?
Now, my instinct says, as somebody who is new to this realm, maybe it's the longest race. Maybe he just has a sweet spot for his stamina and he...
was overtapped you know that's a good point that's a very good point it could just be i mean the same thing with like swimmers and runners yeah yeah yeah it's the same it's the same thing do they have their specialties in terms of like distance running or short distance or hurdles or whatnot yeah for sure yeah i think that's it
Now, I'm sure they're all thinking that that's their whole career, but it is worth testing. And all of these tests, by the way, for health and injuries, anything like that, they all came back normal. And despite this, his team was actually fearful enough of a poor showing at the arc that they entered Sugar into an early retirement just after eight competitions.
And so they're thinking, OK, well, we thought we'd go out on top. We thought this was the race. And honestly, he might have done well. We don't know. But they're thinking after such a sour turn on this kind of one off,
let's just call it here and even with the shocking loss the aga khan continued to receive multiple offers to buy the prized sugar horse and of course he's still pretty young other people have different ideas as to when to retire a horse and what have you and khan decided that instead of selling the horse outright as i kind of said earlier he decided to what's called syndicate the horse
creating 40 shares of this horse, 4-0, each worth $400,000, and this was in the year 1982. That is, he split the ownership of the horse into 40 shares and shared ownership and investment of this animal. This would be about, I should say, 250,000 pounds, British sterling, and those shares today would be around 1.3 million US dollars. Okay. Yeah.
But like why invest in a horse that late into the game is retired. I mean, is it again, is it for breeding purposes? Could be. That's actually a really good question. And I don't believe we kind of talk about that, but out of curiosity, Christian, if you don't mind, like, doing a little searching on the side and see if you can come up with an answer.
Because if he was being retired, that's a very good question outside of the idea of breeding, which was certainly, and I'll talk about that, that was the next idea. And so maybe in lieu of Christian's answer here in a little bit, maybe that's what it was, Fredo.
You know, so the Aga Khan kept six shares to himself, sold the rest to individual buyers, and Sugar then retired to Balimani's stud ranch in County Kildare in Ireland. There, Sugar lived out one, what it's called, rutting season, or breeding season, breeding with over 40 mares and becoming the father to 35 foals. Damn. Yep. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How did the investigation into Shergar's kidnapping unfold?
And like I said, many reports mentioned three armed men enter the home. Some sources say two. But by the end, it's worth mentioning that Fitzgerald estimated that in total, there were between six and nine masked armed robbers involved this evening. That's a lot. I mean, you're talking big money, though. Yeah, this feels like an organized effort, and you'll kind of see that as this goes on.
From immediately the get-go, you see a couple men go to the door. So that means if there are six to nine men, that some are in the wings, waiting to be radioed, communicated with, or what have you. And so immediately, that's where my mind goes. This is planned. It is well known. Yeah.
So soon after entering and locking away each of the family members, one of the other gunmen then demands that Jim take him specifically to Sugar. Now, in order to spare his and his family's life, of course, Fitzgerald says, fine. He leads the gunman over to Sugar Stable and then collects the horse.
At that point, the gunman then use a walkie talkie to radio to another group of unknown how many men. And then a horse trailer is pulled up right there at the stable. Sugar is then loaded into the horse trailer, and Fitzgerald is blindfolded and placed into yet another vehicle.
So immediately, he doesn't know what's going on, and he is driven around for several hours, and he is eventually dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and later investigation reveals that he was dropped off about 20 miles away, 32.2 kilometers from his house.
And so when you think about that, driving for three to four hours just to go 20 miles, it really shows that they were burning the clock, trying to hide their trail, trying to discombobulate Fitzgerald so he didn't know where he was or what have you.
And when they dropped him off in the middle of this field, they then threatened him saying that he was not allowed to contact the police, otherwise they would kill his family. And of course, you don't know where they are, if they're in possession, if they're locked away, or if they're being driven around. And so there you have it. Yeah, it's just really disorienting. Yeah.
And that on top of the emotions you're going through, the heightened adrenaline, the panic. Jeez, you're just completely all out of sorts. I don't even know how to react in that situation. Or you just don't know where, like, where east or west is in your mind. Right. Physically. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They were doing some work.
And I believe he was dropped off in the wee hours of the morning, somewhere between like 3 and 4 a.m., if I recall correctly. So yeah, it's still dark out. So maybe he just heads to the horizon with the brightest lights. Eventually he does go to a small village. We'll talk about that.
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Chapter 7: What role did the IRA play in Shergar's case?
because it's almost like multiple realities are happening so keep everything in line it's like multiple timelines because they'll all coalesce at the very end into the shared truth okay so first off we have a call to the bbc newsroom in belfast ireland from someone claiming to be the kidnappers this happened a few hours after the call to dreon
And the details on this call are a little fuzzy, but hold that call in mind. I will say it's a little weird because they seem very, this whole thing seems very put together. And so to make a phone call to like a news outlet to what post to put yourself out there just doesn't seem to quite line up with my initial like thoughts of how this group functions and the way you're thinking. Yes.
Yes, I love that you're saying this because this next call goes so the opposite way. And I say next, it's actually the very first. So I'll talk a little bit about why we think they contacted BBC Belfast in a little bit. But before we do, this is where I want to dive into the third call, which is actually the very first call.
It's super interesting and offers a lot more insight and also overlaps as far as information learned with the BBC call. So this other call happened the very night that Shigar was captured. I'm, oh man, I'm just like, I'm so excited to talk about this because this call was made when Fitzgerald is being driven around. It was made to a man named Jeremy Maxwell.
And again, this is happening soon after the kidnapping and Fitzgerald's blindfolded. He hasn't even been dropped off yet. And so it's so long before anyone else could possibly know that this horse was kidnapped. And I believe based on some sources that they name drop King Neptune in this call. They even start like making ransom demands in this, but before they do, they say, we're the thieves.
We're going to negotiate with you guys, but we will only negotiate with three people. Lord Oxy, Derek Thompson, and Peter Campling. All three of these individuals were horse racing journalists who jumped at the idea, obviously, of being so heavily involved with the largest story of the year, if not that century. Being name-picked and everything. Right. Campling hails from The Sun.
The other two come from ITV. And this, again, is apparently the same information that was given to BBC Belfast
in order like on their call and now this kind of to me affirms the authenticity of the callers at this juncture because we have the the name drop we have the we know sugar has been kidnapped call before the world knows and i think that they contact the bbc mostly to make a big to-do out of this they want the world to know because they want a little bit of chaos and and attention on it
Now, what's really interesting about this call, remember, this is the very first call. This caller demands 40,000 pounds. 40,000. That's the only ransom they give. So much smaller. And then they demand that all three of the aforementioned journalists arrive at the Europa Hotel in Belfast by the evening of February 10th.
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Chapter 8: What is the lasting impact of Shergar's story on horse racing?
And cold, this is very cold, but another piece of the puzzle here is that insurance payouts a lot of the time... especially at that time, required immediate euthanasia in order to have a payout to the owner or shareholders if the horse was irrecoverable. If it was an injury that they couldn't live or recover fully from, it demanded immediate euthanasia.
So it could be that they knew they injured the horse and then said, F it, and then did the deed. Okay, so then it kind of makes more sense as that last phone call. They're like, if you don't believe us, then fine. It's like, oh, because you didn't have it. They're not biting. You know they're not going to bite, and so that's it.
Yeah, some believe that the horse might have been injured the night he was kidnapped or horse-napped. Forgive me, I don't know the proper term there, but others believe it might have been in the days that followed. I do want to say that Fitzgerald recounts that night, and he, when reflecting with investigators, he said that he thought someone, one of those individuals, seemed to have...
a familiarity with horses. He also indicated that one of the men seemed to have a Northern Irish accent, but that's almost neither here nor there. But it does fly a little bit in the face of what O'Callaghan is saying, which is that none of them had any experience with the horses. And either way, you got a bunch of guys who just want money that are kidnapping and whatnot.
i don't know what kind of conditions this horse is being held in and so it doesn't shock me if this horse did unfortunately get injured is all i'm trying to say yeah i i don't think you know it's one thing to actually like kidnap the horse it's another thing to actually know how to handle such a animal and plus the thing on top of that is you know they can get spooked very easily too
You know, this horses have blinders when they're, you know, carrying people down the street and stuff like that. And so there's a lot to it. There's nuances. And as much as they're planned, that's just something that's like a whole other thing to learn and specialize in. Yeah, that's probably what happened. And man, it's just really unfortunate. But I think you're right.
It does make sense as to why things collapsed. If the horse was injured, you know what? We're not going to get out of this clean. Let's just cut loose while we're free and stay free. If the horse is dead already, even more so, right? So it kind of, I think, does make sense. Now, again, This is just a claim. There's no evidence here.
But there was another informant, interestingly enough, that later claimed O'Callaghan didn't tell enough of the story, didn't tell the entire more detailed story because of the, they said, embarrassment that the IRA felt at the failure of this particular crime and the ransom claim.
Now, among the claims that they gave, this informant detailed how they were ordered to release the horse instead of putting it down, but given the police attention on them, they thought release would be too risky. This resulted in the order to put down the horse four days after it was kidnapped, says this second informant, this time an anonymous individual.
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