On Ketch's initiative, an agreement was reached with the insurance company to turn the colt over to him and his associate Herwig Schoen, a self-proclaimed "energy healer".
Some call their treatment program "voodoo medicine", pointing out that research has shown that in about ten percent of these cases within twelve to fifteen months a horse will recover on its own.
Certified sound by multiple professionals, Ketch sent him to the October 2003 Tattersalls Houghton Yearling Sale at Newmarket in England where Sheikh Mohammed's Gainsborough Stud acquired the colt they would name Shamardal.
He won that seven-furlong race by 2+1⁄2 lengths and in the process defeated Wilko, who went on to win that autumn's Breeders' Cup Juvenile in the United States.
Competing at age three under the Maktoum family's Godolphin Racing banner, Shamardal was conditioned by their head trainer, Saeed bin Suroor.
The colt made his 2005 debut in the UAE Derby at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai but performed poorly in his first race on dirt.
Returned to England for his next start at York Racecourse in June's St. James's Palace Stakes, Shamardal won his third Group One race of 2005 and the fourth of his career.