also, wonder why the sheik is so fixated on coolmore--lane's end is doing better than him as well....

amazing the top sires and their farms on this years list. top two are lane's end stallions, then a winstar, and then two ashfords(coolmore).

lane's end has 5 in the top 20.
ashford has 4.
darley? 1

“Anything less than 50 would be uncivilized,” :cool:

lol

shows poor form not to overpay....

funny, i read where paul reddam has a rep for overpaying--guess the same could be said for the owner of darley.

Very true. In the beginning, when spending was limited and the number of horses they had in their stable was also limited they were successful. Then for no reason at all they decided to increase their stable size by around 200% and continued to buy other people's horses that they regarded as competition. It failed to work then, so why should it work now? They cannot see this, it seems.

There is no doubt in my mind that they are jealous of Coolmore. It must really frustrate them when they see Coolmore doing very little (so it seems) but continuing with huge success year after year.

As you have said, it doesn't seem like they have a plan other than to buy and hope for the best. It's the same with racehorses and stallion prospects.

Their decision not to buy any yearlings at public auctions by Coolmore stallions was just stupid. Coolmore stallions are at the top of the tree each year, a business cannot stop buying the best if they want to succeed. Everyone sees that decision as nothing more than stupid, but they don't see that.

Another thing is the fact that they continue to buy horses for their stable because apparently the ones they already have aren't good enough. It's great marketing for their breeding operation isn't it :rolleyes:

You act as though they never win a race. Do you not understand that the means of achieving for them is not nearly as important as the final result? They (sheikMo) wants to eclipse Coolmore because he has a personal issue with them. He has the means to pursue his goal and to me it looks as though he is doing a pretty good job of it. The fact is that they pretty much have unlimited money and are not afraid to use it. Maybe it turns you off but that's life.

I beg to differ. Coolmore's stallion roster in the US is full of middle of the road types, some old ones, some fading ones, and a couple of promising ones. American breeders with the power mares are thinking twice about Coolmore stallions because they know the biggest player is out of the market for their foals. Darley is also driving up the premium stallion market to force Coolmore to either overpay for a prospect or not be a player for them. They did it to him and now he is doing it to them.

the green monkey effect..?

Started long before him...

and you obviously can't see that they are losing ground on Coolmore year after year.

You talk about the final result? Is this result so far in the future that none of us will see it?

They are concentrating so much on what Coolmore are doing, i think they forget that they are running a stable and breeding operation as well. They don't back up their own stallions by buying their offspring at the sales (well, very rarely). Coolmore play the game by paying lots for offspring of their own stallions to make them look more popular and it has worked so far, so it seems. They paid 1,400,000 euros for a son of Galileo in France the other day. Darley seem to forget about their current stallions.

To me, they are looking for a quick fix.

So they should artificially create a market by buying up horses sired by their stallions, many of which they already own? (in effect buying their own horses)

That is what pissed off the arabs in the first place and you seem to think that this fraudelent practice is a good thing. You can call it playing the game or whatever but when your premier US stallion's(Giants Causeway) yearling averages have dropped from $222,100(2006) to $79,914 (2007)in one year and the medians dropped from $120000 to $61000, I would say that what they are doing may be having an effect.

If you think that Coolmore is going to come out ahead in this matter than be my guest. But I'm thinking that the biggest buyer in the world not buying your product is going to hurt you. The trickledown effect apparantly is already occuring and if you think that Demi O'Byrne spending more of Coolmore's money is going to trick US buyers or breeders, you are sadly mistaken. The handwriting is on the wall.

well said.

game...set...match

why is darley so determined to go after coolmore? what caused the boycott to begin with?

had no idea giants causeways numbers were down that low. and why is he listed as private--i thought that was generally done only with older stallions who were closing in on retirement?

and no doubt the biggest buyer not buying will hurt. does anyone else ignore coolmore now as well? is darley able to sway some of their buyers not to buy from coolmore? just how far does this all go?

but with coolmore being world wide, and having so much success still overseas, does the loss of potential customers over here level their playing field? just seems you see a lot of articles lately talking about godolphin staggering along, while coolmore continues to win the big ones.

giants causeway's yearling numbers will go way back up after the sept sale, which is the #1 sale in the world.

so far, the only yearling sales to have taken place have been pretty weak, save maybe that last FT one which was decent.

The way i see it is that Coolmore see the American market as the least of their worries. I wouldn't like to say why, but they have always been more interested in the european market.

Darley and Godolphin are staggering along, you only have to see the stallion stats to notice that. So many Coolmore stallions from around the world in the top half of the list, but only a couple of Darley stallions.

Many mare owners will look at this list first, and the psychological impact it has to see Coolmore have so many stallions in the top bracket is usually enough to sway their decision over many other stud organisations. Why do you constantly see Darley advertising almost everyday of the week all through the year? Because their outside 'sales' are low. Coolmore don't really need to market that much, the stats give them as much free marketing as they need.

Someone was saying it isn't a good ploy for Coolmore to buy yearlings by their stallions?????? Porbably the most absurd argument i have seen. 1. By buying a lot of their stallion's yearlings it shows they trust the stallions they have, they are backing up their own business (which any business in any sector would do). 2. By paying the amount they can for them, the average price for the sire's yearlings goes up each year..... something else that looks very good on them. People don't look who buys these yearlings, they just look at the prices and average prices in recent years. Nothing wrong with it, they are playing the game, as i said, it has seemingly worked thus far and it will continue to work.

Tony Morris, who is the best bloodstock writer in the world described Darley/Godolphin's decision to stop buying offspring by Coolmore's sires as nothing short of "stupid". Sure it might 'hurt' Coolmore a bit, but with the amount of money this industry is worth, it is a tiny percentage. Their stallions do the talking, not their buyers.

Sure, the American stallions aren't the best at the moment, Giant's Causeway has dipped, but as IC just said, once the big sales come around again, there is every chance the prices of his yearlings will rise sharply again. You seem to forget that the stallions in Ireland contain the best stallions in the world and continues to thrive in europe and around the world.

Coolmore can't be doing a lot wrong with how they add an extra chunk onto their lead over Godolphin each year, and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon.

Godolphin seem to panic buy, without much success. If they want to close the gap of Coolmore they should concentrate on their own racing and breeding operation..... not other peoples.

Not necessarily. He has already had 62 go through the ring this year including the biggest sale (Ingles) in the Southern hemisphere and 2 major yearling sales here (July and Saratoga) He had 89 sell last year and will probably have a similar number this year.

There is very little competition in Europe.

Of course however in the future when Darleys new crop of stallions start producing runners the lists may have an entire new look.