Shergar Shergar Shergar (3 March 1978 – c. February 1983) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. After a very successful season in 1981 he was retired to the Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, Ireland. In 1983 he was stolen from the stud, and a ransom of £2 million was demanded; it was not paid, and negotiations were soon broken off by the thieves. In 1999 a supergrass, formerly in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), stated they stole the horse. The IRA has never admitted any role in the theft. The Aga Khan, Shergar's owner, sent the horse for training in
Horse racing in Ireland a tradition of racing on the beach in Kerry, a tradition which continues today. There are later mentions of "horse matches" in Galway in the 13th century under the "Kings Plate Articles". The earliest datable evidence, however, is a 1603 royal warrant entitling the governor of Derry to hold fairs and markets at which horse races could be staged. Horse racing was evidently popular in the 17th century: a 1622 poem tells of a jockey killed participating in a horse race in Carrickfergus, while other accounts mention a 1634 race between Lord Digby and the Earl of Ormond, and the