Will we ever discover what really happened to Shergar?

The Aga Khan’s death last week revived interest in the 1983 kidnapping of his stallion, the world’s most famous horse. Racing correspondent Sam Turner looks back at the mystery

- Sam Turner

As tributes were paid following the death of the Aga Khan IV at 88 earlier this week, stories were told of his vast £10.5bn wealth, his two marriages, which ended up costing him millions in divorce settlements, and widespread philanthropy that spanned the globe. But for most people, his name will be forever linked with Shergar, the spectacular winner of the 1981 Epsom Derby and the subject of one of the greatest unsolved crimes of the 20th century.

Although the big bay was just one of five Derby winners to carry the famous green and red silks of his owner, Shergar’s heroics on the track in the hands of gifted teenage rider Walter Swinburn that first Wednesday in June, swiftly established him as one of the race’s most iconic winners.

Shergar won by 10 lengths – the biggest victory margin in the race’s 226-year history. Rarely do displays of such raw brilliance and class transpire on the greatest stage, and the magnitude of Shergar’s victory was not lost on his owner. Of that 1981 Derby triumph, the Aga Khan said: “It’s a memory that can never, never go away. If you’re in racing, the Epsom Derby is one of the greats. It always has been, so to win a race of that quality in itself is an extraordinary privilege. To win it the way he won it was more than that.”

Shergar followed up his Epsom victory with success in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh, where Lester Piggott was united with the colt for the first time in his two-year-old career. Regular rider Swinburn returned to the plate for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July, where Shergar managed to follow in the hoofprints of Nijinsky and Mill Reef by winning the mid-summer Group 1 prize. Sadly, his racing career ended in defeat at Doncaster in the St Leger, where a combination of soft ground and a step up in trip served to blunt his speed.