Darco won many show jumpingcompetitions in his career such as: Champion of Belgium as a 5 year old. Winner of the Belgian Championship as a 6 year old. Darco was Winner of the Volvo World Cup in London 1988 and in Hertogenbosch in 1989. He was 6th in the World Championships in Stockholm in 1990 and 7th place in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Born 1980 Once again, Darco's story, is the story of an exceptional broodmare - in this case, his grand-dam, Atoucha. Born in 1959 in Holland the mare was purchased by Fons Pauwels in 1960. Mr Pauwels was looking for a real "all-rounder", a horse for both work and play. And this she did - working in the fields and in her "spare" time, competing in dressage, showjumping and eventing competitions. She was twice - in 1968 and 1970 - the Belgian Eventing champion for Rural Riders, and three times a competitor at the European Rural Championships. According to her proud owner (and quoted in Leen Devocht's excellent article on Darco in Breeding News, January 1997) her qualities were a legion: "very strong, healthy; not a single day of sickness in her book, an immense capacity for recovering; everlasting carefulness, even as an evente; not a single refusal; always fighting and daring like a lioness - she could eat fences raw." Atoucha gave birth to eleven foals - ten fillies and one colt, Salvador, who went on to win the Berlin puissance. Darco's dam, Ocoucha (by Codex) is the eldest daughter of Atoucha's third daughter, Latoucha (by Faust).

Bred to one of the greatest of Belgian jumping stallions, Lugano van la Roche, Ocoucha produced Darco, who went on to prove himself a tough competitor on the international jumping scene with Ludo Phillippaerts. In 1988, Darco won his first World Cup qualifier, at Olympia, the following year, he won another Volvo for his rider, this time at s'Hertogenbosch.

Darco and Ludo were sixth at the WEG in Stockholm, and 7th at the Barcelona Games. 

In the Breeding News article, Ludo has this to say about the stallion: "Together with Darco, I began my international career. A horses to remain grateful to for the rest of my life. Darco really has everything it takes to make a unique super crack, as a showjumper as well as a sire. Horses of this outstanding quality will remain the great exceptions in the breeding industry.

I will never forget the fine intelligence he so often proved in the showjumping arena, where he always showed lots of power and stamina coming from his high-bred ancestors."