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 Joe Mercer retired. In 2016, a fire broke out in cottages at the stud farm, destroying a staff accommodation building. Gainsborough Stud Gainsborough Stud is a stud farm based in Woolton Hill, Newbury and owned by United Arab Emirates-based international racing operation Godolphin. It was established in 1910 to stand the racehorse Gainsborough and sold in 1981 to Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who operated it as part of his international horse breeding and racing interests, including training horses to race under his own and Godolphin's colours. On his death, Gainsborough Stud passed to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al