Category: Horses

Sadly, Shergar will always be best remembered not for his career as a racehorse, but for his mysterious disappearance from the Ballymany Stud, Co. Kildare in February, 1983, after which he was never seen alive again. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Shergar was an outstanding racehorse, who won six of his eight races, including the Guardian Classic Trial, Chester Vase, Derby, Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Indeed, his 10-length victory in the 1981 Derby – which led commentator Peter Bromley to exclaim, ‘…you need a telescope to see the rest!’ – remains the widest winning margin in the history of the Epsom Classic. His career ended in disappointment when only fourth, beaten 11½ lengths, on unfavourable soft going, in the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster. A proposed trip to Longchamp for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was called off and Shergar was, instead, retired to stud.

Even so, Shergar was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 140, placing him alongside such luminaries of the sport as Dancing Brave and Sea The Stars. At the end of his racing career, he was syndicated for £10 million, making him, for a time, the most famous and valuable horse in the world.

Obviously, if a horse falls, or lies down, in its stable and cannot or will not get up, it is a fair indication that something is amiss. Physical injuries, such as fractured limbs, or diseases, such as colic or laminitis, may prevent a horse from standing up or, at least, make it reluctant to do so; such condititions require immediate veterinary attention.

However, unlikely though it may seem, it’s also possible for a perfectly healthy horse to become stuck, or ‘cast’, in its box simply by lying down in, or rolling into, the wrong position. Typically, a cast horse inadvertently positions itself with its legs so close to the wall of its stable, or possibly some other obstruction, that it cannot extend them sufficiently to stand up or roll over.

Of course, it is possible that the stable is simply too small for the horse but, whatever the cause, a horse becoming cast is a potentially dangerous situation. Cast horses typically panic, thrash about violently, and noisily, and may bang their legs and head on the walls of the stable. If left stuck in a prone position on their side or back for hours at a time, they will suffer muscle damage, so should be helped back to their feet as soon as possible.

In horse racing, a dead-heat occurs when two or more horses cross the finishing line at exactly the same time, such that, even after reference to photographic evidence, the raceday judge cannot separate them. Nowadays, the judge can rely on two highly sensitive, high resolution digital cameras, in a photofinish booth high in the grandstand, to determine the outcome of close finishes. Nevertheless, while advances in technology allow an accurate result to be announced within a matter of seconds, dead-heats do still occur, albeit less often than was once the case.

As far as prize money is concerned, in the event of dead-heat, the first, second and, possibly third, prize money is added together and divided equally between, or among, the connections of the horses involved. As far as bookmakers are concerned, industry standard dead-heat rules dictate that winning bets on a horse involved in dead-heat are settled at full odds – regardless of whether you took an ante post, early or board price, or starting price – but to half, or a third, of your original stake, depending on the number of horses involved in the dead-heat. Thus, a £10 win bet on a horse that dead-heats, with one other, at odds of 4/1 returns £25. Note that this is not the same as half the odds to the full stake which, in this case, would return £30.