Breeding & Racing Magazine

Darley Aust Relocates Stallions For 2009

Darley Australia announced that, following its purchase of the former Woodlands stallions during 2008, it will "reorganise the location of its stallion line-up in 2009, primarily divided between its purpose-built stallion farms at Aberdeen in NSW (approximately 2/3 of the stallion roster) & Seymour in Victoria (the other 1/3)". A definitive list of where each stallion will be standing "will be announced in the coming months". Darley's Denman property (also in NSW) "will become the focus of Sheikh Mohammed's private breeding operation & the Cootamundra stud will continue to stand a relatively small number of stallions. Darley Australia managing director Henry Plumptre commented: "We have decided to relocate the Woodlands stallions, chiefly those that have stood at Denman, to our studs at Aberdeen & Seymour with the aim of streamlining our commercial stallion operation. Foremost in our minds is our desire to continue to provide the simplest breeding options for our clients, so standing our stallions at 2 main farms instead of 4 is ideal." In addition, during early 2009 Darley will "phase out the agistment of third-party mares at Denman & Plumptre noted: "During recent years there has been an emergence in the Hunter Valley of a number of very professional boutique broodmare farms that offer a quality & complete mare service which have more than satisfied demand. We also discovered the numbers of third-party mares residing at Woodlands has been exponentially declining & with Darley's broodmare band in Australia now numbering approximately 450, Denman will focus in future on Sheikh Mohammed's private breeding concern." The realignment also brings leadership change at Darley's studs: Peter Flynn will step away from the day-to-day management of Denman & Cootamundra to take on a stud consultant role with Darley in 2009; John Sunderland will become stud manager of Denman & Barley Ward-Thomas will become the stud manager of Aberdeen.