( CNN ) -- It was a foggy winter 's night on the remote Ballymany Stud Farm in Ireland when its head groom Jim Fitzgerald heard a knock at the door . What lurked outside was to spark one of the most extraordinary unsolved kidnappings of the 20th Century . Thirty years ago this week -- on February 8 , 1983 -- Fitzgerald was confronted by three masked gunmen . They had come for Shergar -- then the most valuable race horse in the world and the pride of a nation . `` Shergar was the best race horse in the world , owned by the richest man in the world . It was the most sensational sports story of all time , '' racing commentator Derek Thompson told CNN . `` We were staggered . A horse kidnapped ? Nothing like this had ever happened before . '' The retired champion race horse , owned by billionaire businessman the Aga Khan , was worth a staggering £10 million ( $ 16 million ) -- around £28 million ( $ 44 million ) by today 's standards . Were Shergar here today , he would be the ninth-most valuable athlete in the world , just ahead of Real Madrid 's prized footballer Cristiano Ronaldo on $ 42.5 million . The five-year-old breeding stallion , who had mated with 35 mares in his first season , was set to be worth millions in the coming years with owners paying up to £80,000 ( $ 126,000 ) for his highly sought-after offspring . This , after all , was the champion colt who two years earlier annihilated the field at Britain 's prestigious Epsom Derby , winning by 10 lengths -- the biggest margin in the race 's 226-year history . For racing-mad Ireland , Shergar was the darling of a nation in turmoil during the darkest days of `` the Troubles , '' with violence between nationalists and unionists in the north as they vied for political power . The bandits demanded £2 million ( $ 3 million ) for Shergar and conspiracy theories abounded , with the New Orleans Mafia and the Libya 's Colonel Gaddafi linked to the thoroughbred 's kidnapping . But the most popular accused culprit remains the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) , whom the Aga Khan and his syndicate of owners officially blamed for the kidnap , though authorities have never named a suspect . While the IRA , which has disbanded , took responsibility for a number of attacks over the years , it never claimed to have kidnapped Shergar . Back at Ballymany on that fateful night , the stallion with a distinctive white blaze on his face and four white `` socks '' was loaded into a horse box never to be seen again . Father-of-six Fitzgerald was bundled into a car and driven around for hours before being dumped a few miles from home . He was warned not to call the police . Then a series of mismanaged calls ensured almost eight hours elapsed before police were alerted . Hampering their investigation was the clever timing of the kidnapping -- it was the day before Ireland 's major Goff 's racehorse sale and roads were filled with horse boxes identical to Shergar 's . The kidnappers demanded negotiations through three horse racing journalists at the time -- John Oaksey , Peter Campling , and then 32-year-old television presenter Thompson . `` We were taken to the Europa Hotel , whose claim to fame was that it was the most bombed hotel in Europe , '' Thompson said . `` Do n't forget , this was 1983 at the height of the 'Troubles ' and Belfast was one of the most dangerous cities in the world . '' At the hotel , which still had cracked windows from a previous bombing , Thompson got a call from the kidnappers telling him he was being watched from across the road . He was told to go to a deserted farmhouse 30 miles away for negotiations . There , Thompson said he received eight phone calls from the kidnappers over eight hours . Each call lasted around 60 seconds , but the police needed at least 90 seconds to trace the call . `` When the last call came at 1.30 a.m . I managed to keep him talking for one minute and 35 seconds , '' Thompson said . `` I thought , 'That 's it , we 've got him , ' but the police told me 'Sorry Mr. Thompson , the man who does the tracing goes off duty at midnight . ' `` That was the best chance we had of catching them and it was gone . '' Shergar was owned by a syndicate of 34 people , each with a share worth £250,000 ( $ 394,000 ) . The syndicate refused to pay the ransom , fearing it would encourage other kidnappings . `` The following Monday we received a call saying the horse had had an accident and was dead . That was the last time we heard from them , '' Thompson said . Thompson believes the IRA was responsible , pointing to evidence in former member Sean O'Callaghan 's 1999 autobiography `` The Informer . '' `` Every time I took a call from the kidnapper I used a different code word -- the name of a famous race horse -- so I would know it was the same guy calling back , '' Thompson said . `` But there was always one name I kept to myself , I never told anyone else , and when I read O'Callaghan 's book it was there . That really shook me to the core . '' Jockey Walter Swinburn , who as a 19-year-old rode Shergar to that historic Epsom Derby win , said the kidnapping had a profound effect on tightening racing industry security . `` Shergar 's stable was very impressive but anybody could have walked into it , '' he said . `` Today it 's more like a padded cell , they ca n't afford for the horse to get injured , with CCTV and a large number of grooms . '' The thoroughbred has since been immortalized in Ascot 's annual Shergar Cup and the 1999 film `` Shergar '' starring Mickey Rourke . Swinburn regrets that Shergar 's achievements on the track will always be overshadowed by his dramatic abduction . But the image of him pounding over the hill at Epsom , his seemingly tiny competitors trailing behind , lives on .
Thirty years after `` world 's greatest '' race horse was stolen , his legend lives on . Shergar was kidnapped from Northern Irish stud farm , but was never found . He is now a celebrity in the United States and has been featured in several movies including " Seabiscuit'( which won an Oscar ). Irish Republican Army was widely accused of kidnapping but was never charged .