So what do we think really happened? I suspect it was foul play. Shall remain a mystery I suppose, just like the pyramids.
I don't think there is any conspiracy theory here and that the official line is likely reasonably accurate. I believe the story goes that the IRA horse knapped him in the hope of easy ransom money from a wealthy owner. I think they found keeping a very highly strung racehorse under wraps without detection much harder than expected, once the ransom demands were resisted and the search began to get warm there was an element of panic and they decided to cut their losses and dispose of the horse. A slightly different version is that the horse actually injured himself during all this and had to be destroyed before the plan could obviously be executed. There is something particularly unsavoury about ransom demands in my book as it always plays on another's love for something. I understand in this case we are talking about a horse but the sentiment is the same, you love this and I will part you from it unless you pay me. Robbing banks, stealing things, even robbing people are obviously all not good but to purposely trade on someone's love is something that makes a human less so.
I know it's a bit hard to believe, but Shergar was whisked off to far North Queensland where he raced under the name Ragrehs. The IRA thing was a massive red herring. I have it on good authority that the horse had developed sore nads over night and had been rendered impotent. As a result he was swapped for a well worn cribbage board and a few cartons of Fosters tinnies. In 1983 I just happened to be in that part of the country and with the good wife's blessing, attended a race meeting at Bobawaba, a small town just off the Bruce Highway. As usual I drifted off down to the stables to cast a well practiced eye over the lovelies. The horses looked good too. And who should be there? Yep, you guessed it, bloody Shergar. I couldn't believe my eyes. There he was in all his glory, but now nutless. I quickly checked out the race book. Sure enough, he was entered in the Bobawaba Cup. He made a mess of them that day. Ridden by Bernie Swin, he coasted to the front on the corner and won by a record margin of 10 lengths. The news of who he was quickly spread throughout the close knit township, and it was decided that the world was not to be told. As a testament to the love held for the horse, a huge 20 meter high bronze statue of Ragrehs now takes pride of place in Bobawaba Square.
Shergar was a bit if a nightmare by all accounts, it will have taken a very experienced horseman to be able to handle him. His handler was forced to load him onto the horsebox, so it probably wasn't until they got to their destination that they realised what they'd actually let themselves in for. I go with the version that says he injured himself so they dispatched him when it became obvious things weren't going their way. A particularly unpleasant story I heard was that they shot him with a machine gun as they couldn't get close enough to deliver a fatal bullet to his head.
Princess, a quote. If this account is to be believed, the end came on the fourth night after the kidnapping and not because the horse was badly injured. The great Shergar, so gentle and calm, was machine-gunned to death in a stable by one of his IRA handlers. âThe horse even slipped on its own blood,â the source said. âThere was a lot of cussing and swearing because the horse would not die. It was a very bloody death.â
One of the guys involved is a local counsellor now.he knocked on my door a few months back canvassing.
