There are high hopes for a royal winner at Ascot this week, when the king and queen are expected to have a runner on the first four days of the meeting. However, many racing fans will also be eager to see the green and red colours of the Aga Khan Studs in the winner’s enclosure after the weekend brought final closure to the tragic story of Shergar. Shergar’s 10-length winning margin in the 1981 Derby remains the all-time record.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Princess Zahra Aga Khan, daughter of Shergar’s owner and breeder, Aga Khan IV, confirmed what had long been suspected: the five-year-old stallion was shot not long after being kidnapped from Ballymany Stud in County Kildare by an armed IRA gang in February 1983.
“We now know the horse was killed within two days [of the kidnap],” Princess Zahra said. “It was very unprofessionally done, and when they finally killed him, they did so in an awful way. The horse didn’t deserve that. Even as a stallion he was the kindest horse in the world, he was so unfairly treated. And why? He was a national symbol of Irish breeding and racing. It’s a long time ago, it was a very different world and people had different motivations back then.”
Shergar’s final resting place is unlikely to be found, as he is believed to have been buried in a bog in County Leitrim soon after being shot. Still, his place in racing’s history remains secure, thanks to a brief but extraordinary sequence of wins during his three-year-old season.
Shergar’s two-year-old campaign ended in defeat in what is now the Group One Futurity at Doncaster, where he was beaten two-and-a-half lengths by Beldale Flutter. However, his Classic season opened with a 10-length victory in the Guardian Classic Trial at Sandown, prompting bookmakers to cut his Derby price from 25-1 to 8-1. Even 8-1 was considered a value bet by this newspaper’s first racing correspondent, Richard Baerlein, who famously concluded his report with the suggestion that “surely this is the time to bet like men.”
Shergar won the Chester Vase in early May by a dozen lengths before turning the Derby into a 10-length procession from Tattenham Corner, after Walter Swinburn sent him for home at the top of the home straight. Watching it back now, the first thing many modern punters notice is the sheer size of the crowd enjoying a midweek day off at the Derby, with spectators lining the running rail for most of the mile-and-a-half trip. The field of 18 runners is large by modern standards, but Shergar can be seen travelling easily a few lengths off the pace, and even at the top of the hill, with three-quarters of a mile to go, it was less a question of whether he would win and more a matter of how far.
Shergar’s record-winning margin might have been even wider had Swinburn not eased down inside the final furlong. Peter Bromley, commentating for BBC Radio Two, suggested at one stage that he was “at least 15 lengths” in front. There is poignancy in looking back, knowing his story would end so sadly. Even before midsummer, Shergar’s racing career was near its conclusion. He made three more starts: a four-length win in the Irish Derby, with Lester Piggott replacing the suspended Swinburn, followed by another four-length success in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, his only race against all-aged opposition. But the St Leger at Doncaster on soft September ground proved a race too far, as Shergar finished fourth, nearly a dozen lengths behind the winner, and he was retired to Ballymany a few weeks later.
Shergar’s dominance that summer earned him a Timeform rating of 140, joint-seventh in their all-time European Flat rankings. Dancing Brave received the same mark in 1986, and only Frankel, who tops the list on 147, has earned a higher rating in Europe in the 45 years since Shergar’s peak. Frankel’s legacy in pedigrees is secure, but Shergar had just a single season at stud. The 40 shares at £250,000 each in his syndicate amounted to a record stallion valuation of £10 million. He sired one top-level winner from his only crop of foals: Authaal, in the 1986 Irish St Leger.
While Shergar did not stamp his name in the Stud Book, his late owner’s breeding operation endured as one of the world’s finest. Princess Zahra has already enjoyed big-race victories with horses inherited from her father, including last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Daryz. Amid the long list of champion racehorses at Royal Ascot, Daryz stands out as the biggest star. In the week when a line was finally drawn under Shergar’s miserable demise, Daryz would be a fitting and poignant winner of Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Echo Set to Storm Palace
Even the mighty Frankel almost came unstuck in the St James’s Palace Stakes in 2011, but Bow Echo, the best Guineas winner since Frankel, may give his backers less cause for concern in Tuesday’s feature. Bow Echo has yet to race at Ascot, but he raced around a bend at left-handed Doncaster as a juvenile and stayed on strongly in last month’s Classic, suggesting Ascot’s stiff uphill finish will not be an issue. Gstaad, the subsequent Irish 2,000 Guineas winner, was nearly three lengths behind Bow Echo at Newmarket, and though the betting suggests otherwise, the improving Talk Of New York could be a sterner opponent. Charlie Appleby’s colt was an emphatic winner of the Heron Stakes at Kempton in May and posted a strong time, but the form was still a few pounds shy of Bow Echo’s Newmarket performance, and the unbeaten favourite has similar scope for improvement.
Royal Ascot Tips
2.30 Notable Speech was two lengths ahead of runner-up More Thunder in the Lockinge at Newbury, but this track may suit the latter’s hold-up style, and he is a fair bet at around 4-1 to reverse the form.
3.05 Confucius has been backed into favouritism after Ryan Moore was booked on Sunday, but this is a wide-open Coventry Stakes, and Cut A Dash, a winner in a strong time at York last month, has plenty to recommend him, including an excellent near-side draw.
3.40 It requires a leap of faith to back Asfoora for a repeat of her 2024 win after finishing last in the Temple Stakes in May, but her usual headgear is back, she is well drawn on the near side, and closely matched with favourite Overpass on ratings, at around three times the price.
5.00 The royal runner, Reaching High, is too short for a race of this nature, and Joseph O’Brien’s Galileo Dame, who will appreciate the marathon trip, is a strong each-way alternative at around 14-1.
5.35 Ghostwriter has been absent since this meeting last year but will hold leading claims if his new stable has him straight.
6.10 Alan King’s Daiquiri Bay was a ready winner at Newmarket last time, his first run since being gelded, and he could be a leading player in staying handicaps this summer.
Tuesday Tips by Greg Wood
Stratford-On-Avon: 2.05 Louis Vernon, 2.40 Northern Rose, 3.15 Nibras Gold, 3.50 Edelak, 4.30 Two To Tango, 5.08 Ocean Heights
Thirsk: 2.15 Hapiness, 2.50 Simba’s Pride, 3.25 Frantic, 4.02 It Just Takes Time, 4.42 Beaumadier, 5.20 Midnight Lir
Royal Ascot: 2.30 More Thunder (nb), 3.05 Cut A Dash, 3.40 Asfoora, 4.20 Bow Echo, 5.00 Galileo Dame (nap), 5.35 Ghostwriter, 6.10 Daiquiri Bay
Wolverhampton: 5.15 Quick Quasar, 5.45 Ballisty, 6.15 Cool King, 6.45 Go Lockers Go, 7.15 Panthere Noir, 7.45 Rockafeller Skank, 8.20 Spaceman, 8.54 Wolf Of Badenoch
Beverley: 6.30 Waasil, 7.00 Bee Farmer, 7.30 Oselton, 8.00 Lord Abama, 8.30 Little Ted, 9.00 Dandy’s Angel
