Canadian Horse of the Year Fanfreluche has been in the news of late.
A champion on the track, the daughter of Northern Dancer became an influential foundation mare, for not only did she produce the champion stakes winners L’Enjoleur and Medaille d’Or, she is ancestress of such notable stallions as Holy Roman Emperor, Encosta De Lago,Flying Spur and Lode.
From her also descended the Australian filly Duais, who recently scored her third Gr1 win in the Tancred Stakes, as well as Maine Chance’s freshman stallion Erupt, the sire of unbeaten juvenile stakes winner Karangetang.
Many are probably unaware that Fanfreluche was a victim of kidnapping.
In late June of 1977, the then ten-year-old mare went missing from a field at Claiborne Farm while in foal to champion Secretariat.
A search found a hole cut in the fence of her pasture. Despite an ntensive search – which even involved the FBI – and a substantial reward, attempts to find the prized mare proved unsuccessful.
However, almost six months later in December, investigators received a tip that a mare matching Fanfreluche’s description was residing at a farm on the Tennessee border, about 175 miles from Paris Kentucky.
Turns out she had been found as a stray horse and given shelter by a good Samaritan, who asked local authorities to locate the owner.
Fanfreluche’s identity was confirmed using her upper lip tattoo and she returned to Claiborne Farm, where she foaled a colt in February 1978 named Sain Et Sauf, French for Safe And Sound.
The perpetrator, a local, was eventually convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. Fanfreluche died at the ripe old age of 32, leaving 18 foals. Imagine if she had not been found, Holy Roman Emperor would not have existed, as his dam L’On Vite, was foaled in 1986!
The Fanfreluche saga had a happy ending, unlike that of the Aga Khan’s illustrious homebred Shergar, whose kidnapping shocked the Irish racing and breeding industry to its core on 8 February 1983.
A winner of six of eight starts, amongst which a tour de force 10-length victory in the Epsom Derby Shergar was just five years old when he was snatched in the middle of the night from Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare where he had just commenced his first season as a stallion.
It was believed Shergar – valued at €10 million – was taken by the IRA, which was short of money and looking for new sources of funding. He was expected to be a source of profit for the syndicate which owned him.
Despite frantic efforts over the next four days, the kidnappers, who demanded a ransom of £2-million, terminated communications after four days. This gave rise to the possibility that something untoward had happened to Shergar and that he had been put down.
It is believed he was killed and buried, although his remains have never been found. The disappearance remains a mystery to this day.
Shergar’s sole crop consisted of 35 foals and included Irish St Leger winner Authaal, who was bought as a yearling by Sheikh Mohammed for 3,1 million gns. Daughter Maysoon won the Fred Darling Stakes and reached the frame in the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks.
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