Listed in: Race Horse Breeding & Sales

Darley / Jonabell   [ MAP ]
3333 Bowman Mill Road
Lexington,KY 40513
Contact Person:
Email Address: hello@darleyamerica.com
Website: http://www.darleyatjonabell.com
Phone: 859 255 8537

Darley is HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s global thoroughbred stallion operation which currently stands stallions in six countries around the world. Darley's headquarters is Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket - the renowned home of racing.

The history of the thoroughbred involves wars, long sea journeys and a lucky find in Paris - and it all started back in the 17th century with just three remarkable stallions.

A trio of dominant foundation sires heralded the dawn of the English Thoroughbred, and all racehorses now descend from these founding fathers.

The oldest of the three is the Byerley Turk. Seized by a soldier called Captain Byerley during the battle of Buda in 1686, the Turkish stallion spent the next decade serving as the Captain's warhorse. The Byerley Turk then moved with his newly-married owner to Yorkshire, England, where this legendary horse's dynasty was founded.

In 1704, the Darley Arabian was bought in Aleppo, Syria, by Thomas Darley - an English trader and emissary of Queen Anne - who exchanged the horse for a shipment of rifles in the first arms deal in the Middle East. The stallion was then shipped to his family estate of Aldby Park in England, and entered racing legend as the Darley Arabian.

Known to have covered mares from 1706 to as late as 1719, before dying at the advanced age of 30 while the property of John Brewster Darley - the brother by marriage of Thomas Darley - the Darley Arabian has proved to be the most prepotent of the stallions who formed the thoroughbred.

Most racehorses alive today carry several hundred crosses of his descendants - and 95% of modern thoroughbred racehorses can trace their Y chromosone back to this single stallion.

Almost 280 years after the Darley Arabian stood his first season at stud, Sheikh Mohammed named his breeding operation in honour of the stallion: one of the Arab world's greatest exports.

The third of the three most famous forefathers of the racehorse, the Godolphin Arabian, was foaled in 1724 in Yemen and given to King Louis XV of France by the Bey of Tunis. Not valued by his new owner, he was bought by Englishman Edward Coke, who found the famed stallion pulling a cart in Paris and brought the horse to England. Upon Edward Coke's death, the Arabian became the property of the Earl of Godolphin.