60 Minutes transcript: Shergar, a missing horse, an enduring sports mystery, tell me about this news in (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shergar-missing-horse-enduring-sports-mystery-60-minutes-transcript/)

The “60 Minutes” report, anchored by correspondent Jon Wertheim, revisits one of the greatest enduring mysteries in sports history: the 1983 disappearance of the legendary Irish champion racehorse Shergar.

The Rise of Shergar

In the early 1980s, Shergar was considered Ireland’s equivalent of Secretariat and one of the finest thoroughbreds to ever race. His most iconic moment came at the 1981 Epsom Derby in England, where he dominated the field to win by an astonishing 10 lengths. Owned by the Aga Khan, one of the world’s wealthiest royals and the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, Shergar was retired to Ballymany Stud Farm in County Kildare, Ireland. The horse was syndicated into 40 shares worth the equivalent of over $50 million in modern currency to serve as a prized breeding stallion.

The Kidnapping

On the stormy night of February 8, 1983, amid the sectarian conflict known as “The Troubles,” armed masked men broke into Ballymany Stud Farm. They held head groom Jim Fitzgerald and his family at gunpoint, forced Fitzgerald to lead them to Shergar’s stable, bundled the horse into a trailer, and dropped Fitzgerald off miles away with orders to stay silent.

The kidnapping was believed to be carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). As filmmaker Alison Millar explained in the report, it was a pragmatic, transactional plot rather than a symbolic onethe IRA needed money to purchase weapons, and Shergar was the most valuable horse on the planet.

Chaotic Ransom Negotiations

The kidnappers contacted racing commentator Derek Thompson and two other racing journalists, instructing them to travel to Belfast’s Europa Hotel to act as intermediaries. The ransom demands fluctuated erratically between £40,000 and £2 million. Only three days into the ordeal, the kidnappers made a brief, final call to Thompson, stating simply: “The horse has had an accident. He’s dead,” before hanging up.

The Investigation and Aftermath

The search quickly devolved into a national media circus. The police had virtually no solid leads, while tip lines were flooded with calls from clairvoyants and mistaken sightings of dead livestock. Bizarre theories circulated globallyranging from the horse being stolen to pay American Mafia debts to being shipped to Libya for Muammar Gaddafi.

The prevailing belief among locals and investigators is that the kidnappers lacked the expertise to manage a high-strung, massive thoroughbred stallion. Sean O’Callaghan, a former IRA member turned informant, wrote in his memoir that the captors panicked, shot the horse within days, and buried him in the remote, sparsely populated boglands of County Leitrim near Aughnasheelin.

A Cold Case Today

The segment touches on the lasting tragedy and trauma of the incident, noting the sense of shame in Ireland over how such a beloved national symbol was killed for a botched ransom plot. Jon Wertheim attempted to contact Kevin Mallon, a former convicted IRA operative named by informants as the ringleader, but Mallon refused to speak and hung up. Decades later, no remains have ever been found, no one has ever been charged or arrested, and Shergar’s fate remains completely unsolved.