Shergar quickly'"; another shareholder, Lord Derby, disagreed and said "if ransom money is paid for this horse, then there is a danger of other horses being kidnapped in the years to come – and that simply cannot be tolerated". The first phone call from the thieves was on the night Shergar was stolen; Fitzgerald was not back at Ballymany by that time, and had not had the chance to tell the news of the theft to anyone. The call was to Jeremy Maxwell, a horse trainer based in Northern Ireland. The caller demanded £40,000, although this figure was later raised to
Gainsborough Stud was eventually renamed Gainsborough Stud in his honour. In 1981, the stud farm was bought by Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The stud farm was operated by Maktoum's company, Gainsborough Stud Management, which maintained Gainsborough Farm in central Kentucky (bought in 1984) as well as two facilities in Ireland, Wood Park Stud in Co Meath (bought from the de Burgh family in April 1989) and Ballysheehan Stud. The international operation also stood horses in a number of stud farms in the UK, Ireland and America. In all Maktoum had over 200 horses in training under a roster of ten