Speaker 1: Yeah, it's horse racing season, with the Kentucky Derby first
Speaker 1: up this weekend. Now, even if you don't spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time around horses, watching those breath takingly beautiful,
Speaker 1: gigantic animals running for the roses is kind of a thrill,
Speaker 1: along with sipping a frosty minjulip or two. But look
Speaker 1: at the size and the power of those horses and
Speaker 1: then try to figure out how somebody would be able
Speaker 1: to kidnap one of them. I'm Patty Steele, a billionaire's
Speaker 1: Derby winning thoroughbread disappeared into thin air. That's next on
Speaker 1: the backstory. We're back with the backstory, all right. Even
Speaker 1: if you only see one or two horse races a year,
Speaker 1: it's really fun to watch those magnificent, kind of skittish
Speaker 1: animals run. And the money attached to them is absolutely insane,
Speaker 1: including breeding them, buying them, training them, racing them. But
Speaker 1: a winner is the stuff of legend. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to the nineteen forties. Ali Khan was the son of
Speaker 1: Aga Khan, the third, a major presence in the world
Speaker 1: of thoroughbred horse racing. Ali was the ultimate playboy, betting
Speaker 1: and sometimes marrying movie stars like Grita Hayworth, his second wife.
Speaker 1: But above all, he was a famous breeder and owner
Speaker 1: of magnificent race horses. When his father passed him over
Speaker 1: as Aga Khan the Fourth, giving the title to Ali's son,
Speaker 1: he continued to live the life of a playboy horse breeder,
Speaker 1: and he was incredibly successful. Race horses were in the
Speaker 1: family's blood, and Ali's son, who became Agakon the Fourth
Speaker 1: when he was just twenty years old, was now the
Speaker 1: billionaire leader of the world's Ismali Muslims, and he was
Speaker 1: also a major breeder of thoroughbreds like his father and
Speaker 1: his grandfather. On top of that, he had a degree
Speaker 1: from Harvard and had competed in the Olympics as a skier,
Speaker 1: kind of accomplished. Later on he was active in resort
Speaker 1: development and charity work, but horses were his first passion.
Speaker 1: By nineteen eighty one, the prize possession of Agakon the
Speaker 1: Fourth was the powerful race horse Sugar. That year he
Speaker 1: was entered into the Epsom Derby, Britain's most prestigious race.
Speaker 1: He won by an incredible ten lengths, a record that
Speaker 1: still stands today. One radio commentator said there's only one
Speaker 1: horse in it. You'd need a telescope to see the rest.
Speaker 1: Shugar was called one of the greatest horses ever to
Speaker 1: run in the Derby. He went on to win other
Speaker 1: major races that year, including the Irish Derby. He'd been
Speaker 1: bred in Ireland, so he was a national hero there.
Speaker 1: To make the most of his investment, the Aga Khan
Speaker 1: sold shares of Shugar keeping for himself around twenty percent,
Speaker 1: but he cleared about twelve million dollars or thirty four
Speaker 1: million in today's money. It was time to put Shurgar
Speaker 1: out to stud. In late nineteen eighty one, he was retired,
Speaker 1: set for the delightful life of a stud horse, with
Speaker 1: every expectation that he would sire a generation of champion
Speaker 1: race horses. Shargar's studfee was one hundred thousand dollars, about
Speaker 1: the same as America's triple Crown winner Secretariat a few
Speaker 1: years earlier. Nineteen eighty two was a good season for him.
Speaker 1: He sired thirty five foals, but then it all came
Speaker 1: crashing down. Now it's early nineteen eighty three. Sugar is
Speaker 1: in his stable in Newbridge, Ireland, on a cold, dark
Speaker 1: winter night in February. Problem is a stable is not
Speaker 1: well protected. A horse trailer arrives at the stud buildings
Speaker 1: at eight thirty p m. Inside his house, Shugar's groom,
Speaker 1: James Fitzgerald thinks he hears a car in the yard,
Speaker 1: but then hearing nothing else, he forgets about it. Ten
Speaker 1: minutes go by, there's a knock at the door. Bernard,
Speaker 1: James Fitzgerald's son, answers it. It's a man in a
Speaker 1: police uniform wearing a face mask. He asks for James,
Speaker 1: but then knocks young Bernard to the floor. James comes
Speaker 1: into the room and sees his son on the floor. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: three more men shove their way into the house. They
Speaker 1: hold the family at gunpoint in the kitchen. James says
Speaker 1: they were exceptionally calm and well organized. Several of the
Speaker 1: armed men forced James to lead them to Shurgar's stable.
Speaker 1: Once there, they load the thoroughbread into a trailer and
Speaker 1: drive off. James is forced into another vehicle and driven
Speaker 1: around for about three hours before he's thrown out of
Speaker 1: the car. The crime shocks everyone. How do you kidnap
Speaker 1: a champion racehorse who was unheard of before? And since
Speaker 1: the crime was front page news around the world. The
Speaker 1: AGA Khan's uncle said, the whole thing seems like fiction.
Speaker 1: The kidnappers told James the Groom they wanted three million
Speaker 1: dollars for the horse's return, close to ten million dollars
Speaker 1: in today's money, but the horse was valued at thirty
Speaker 1: five million in today's money. Now the problem is the horse,
Speaker 1: as we know, is now owned by a syndicate, and
Speaker 1: while the Aga Khan holds a large share, the group
Speaker 1: decides no ransom will be paid. The cops make little progress.
Speaker 1: Landowners and farmers try to help out, and even mediums
Speaker 1: and psychics are called in. But there's nothing, no leads,
Speaker 1: no evidence, no viable suspects, not even a body. James Murphy,
Speaker 1: the Chief Superintendent of the Irish Police, at one point
Speaker 1: says at a news conference, a clue that is something
Speaker 1: we haven't got. As time passes, it seems pretty clear
Speaker 1: the horse must be dead. The big British insurance company,
Speaker 1: Lloyd's of London, agrees to pay out millions of dollars
Speaker 1: to the owners. But this magnificent animal has vanished without
Speaker 1: a trace. It's been forty two years and Sugar has
Speaker 1: never been seen again. Soon suspicion points at the Irish
Speaker 1: Republican Army, which was in a violent struggle with US
Speaker 1: Britain at the time. Insiders tell the story that the
Speaker 1: kidnappers knew very little about these powerful but fragile horses.
Speaker 1: They had a rough time managing the high spirited stallion.
Speaker 1: They claim he was killed only a few hours after
Speaker 1: the kidnapping, possibly after injuring himself, and that he was
Speaker 1: buried in a remote area, but his final resting place
Speaker 1: has never been found. The case remains formally open. Hope
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Speaker 1: writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
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Speaker 1: backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't
Speaker 1: know you needed to know.