Blast From The Past: The Derby

Sadly, if Shergar’s name has become widely known outside racing, it’s the mystery surrounding his theft and his untimely end at the hands of kidnappers not long into his stallion career that’s earned him wider fame than his brilliance as a racehorse. When syndicated for stud, the valuation put on him of £10m was a record for a stallion in Europe.

It was principally his 1981 Derby win which made Shergar such a hot property, a race described by Racehorses as ‘arguably the most one-sided Derby of modern times’, while the assessment at the time that his performance in the classic was ‘the best in the post-war era’ still holds true thirty-five years later. Shergar’s winning margin of ten lengths (after being eased down) remains a record for the race.

As a result of winning not one but two Derby trials by wide margins – Sandown’s Classic Trial by ten lengths and the Chester Vase by twelve - Shergar was sent off a rare odds-on favourite for the Derby, Camelot in 2013 being the only odds-on winner since. ‘What was there to stand in his way?’ asked Racehorses. ‘He had shown much the best form of any of the Derby runners; his ability to stay a mile and a half was proven; he seemed sure to handle the Epsom course; and his equable temperament made the prospect of his being upset by the preliminaries at Epsom seem very remote.’

The one-sided nature of Shergar’s Derby, despite seventeen rivals lining up against him, was due as much to the relative weakness of the opposition as it was to Shergar’s own considerable ability. The Lester Piggott-ridden Shotgun was sent off second favourite after finishing second in the Dante at York. The Dante winner, Beldale Flutter, injured after getting loose on Newmarket Heath the week before, was an important absentee as he’d been the only horse to have beaten Shergar when defeating him in the William Hill Futurity (nowadays the Racing Post Trophy) at Doncaster.

Rounding Tattenham Corner on the bridle, it was already a question of by how far Shergar would win and once into the straight he stretched clear to give his nineteen-year-old jockey Walter Swinburn the first major win of his career. Shotgun was only fourth as the Derby Italiano winner Glint of Gold, later also runner-up in the St Leger, ran on to take a remote second after being caught up in scrimmaging back in the field. The runner-up’s rider John Matthias said afterwards that he thought he’d won – ‘Shergar had gone so far clear I didn’t see him’.

Shergar went on to win the Irish Derby and then beat older horses decisively in the King George but his racing career ended in a double disappointment, suffering a shock defeat when only fourth in the St Leger which hastened his retirement to stud without contesting the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.