Darley to shift Australian stallions

Officials at Darley Australia have announced that the location of their

stallions will be reorganized in 2009. Its horses will be divided between its

purpose-built farm in Aberdeen, New South Wales, and at Seymour in the state of

Victoria. At this point, it is estimated that two-thirds of the stallions will

reside at Aberdeen and the other third at Seymour.

The Denman property, also located in New South Wales, will become home to

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's private breeding operation, while the

stud at Cootamundra will continue to stand a few stallions.

"We have decided to relocate the Woodlands stallions, chiefly those that have

stood at Denman, to our studs at Aberdeen and Seymour with the aim of

streamlining our commercial stallion operation," Darley Australia Managing

Director Henry Plumptre said in a release. "Foremost in our minds is our desire

to continue to provide the simplest breeding options for our clients, so

standing our stallions at two main farms instead of four is ideal. Our stallions

received tremendous support from Australasian breeders in 2008 and while the

season was progressing we were also busy planning for 2009."

A list of where each stallion will stand will be announced over the coming

months. Additionally, Darley plans on phasing out third-party mares currently

residing at the Denman property.

"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 and

complete mare service which have more than satisfied demand," Plumptre

explained. "We also discovered that the numbers of third-party mares residing at

Woodlands has been exponentially declining and with Darley's broodmare band in

Australia now numbering approximately 450, Denman will focus in future on Sheikh

Mohammed's private breeding concern."

With the announcement comes a leadership change. Stud manager Peter Flynn

will step down from the day-to-day management at Denman and Cootamundra and will

take on the role of stud consultant in 2009. The new stud manager at Denman is

John Sunderland, while Barley Ward-Thomas will fill the same role at Aberdeen.