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
Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial The Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial is a Group 3 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbreds. It is run over a distance of 1 mile and 2 furlongs (2,012 metres) at Leopardstown in May. Established in 1971, the event was originally called the Nijinsky Stakes. It was named after Nijinsky, the previous year's Irish-trained English Triple Crown winner. For a period the Nijinsky Stakes held Group 2 status. It was open to older horses for several years from the mid-1970s. The race was renamed the Derby Trial Stakes in 1984. From this point it