There will be those who will argue that Darley's marketing tactics for the 2004 season were unsuccessful; Coolmore beating them home by more than a short half head when the stallions' final books are analysed.

I'd suggest you take a closer look at the video tape.

In 2003 no stallion at Darley Stud covered more than 100 mares. In 2004 nine stallions at the stud served more than 100 mares.

Rome wasn't built in a day. From a marketing perspective Darley's 2004 results conclusively prove that their 'deals' did in fact have the effect that so many other stud farms feared they would. What will be interesting will be analysing the QUALITY of mares each of their stallions attracted compared to the previous year as, at the end of the day, if you're just focused on sire rankings, huge foal crops do have the useful side effect of potentially producing a large number of early runners .... but they have to be able to run. There are many stallions who have proven that they can upgrade their mares but as a large commercial enterprise you really don't want to have to put yourself in the position where the majority of mares need to be.