Shergar, 20 years gone but not forgotten

He was described as "bomb-proof", because of his combination of talent and temperament. But it's 20 years today since Shergar the wonder horse disappeared, presumed kidnapped and later shot by the IRA.

The intervening decades have produced more rumours than Shergar produced offspring during his short career at stud. He was about to start his second breeding season when he was abducted from the Aga Khan's Ballymany Stud in Co Kildare, on February 8th, 1983.

It was said he had been removed to a breeding facility in the Middle East, or that his sperm was being extracted and sold. Bogus ransom demands were made. But contact with the real gang dried up after four days, and the likelihood is that he was killed by kidnappers who underestimated the difficulties of holding a thoroughbred racehorse.

Shergar was a legend long before his unfortunate end, winning Irish and English Derbys - the latter by a record margin.

The current managing director of Epsom racecourse, Mr Stephen Wallis, recalls watching the race as a young punter: "I will never forget Shergar's victory and \ Walter Swinburn looking over his shoulder at the pack and thinking: "Christ, where's the rest of the field?"

Swinburn said yesterday he hoped the horse's remains would be found, and bring "closure" to the case. "If there was one horse that didn't deserve the end he got, it was Shergar."

Three years ago, a horses' skull was found in Kerry, with two bullet holes to the forehead. But it proved to be a much younger animal.

The mystery has given rise to books, documentaries, and a critically panned film starring Mickey Rourke as the leader of the kidnap gang. The cinema version had Shergar held in Co Clare until - in a mystic conclusion - he is saved from assassination by a young boy who rides him off the cliffs of Moher.

Like its subject, the film has disappeared without trace.