Stop Words In Domain Names

I have a lot of IM experience and have been making a living on the internet for over 15 years.

One thing that I have never really had to deal with is stop words in my domain names.

I am in the middle of going after a particular niche and I have come across a question that I don't know a good answer to.

I have found a good keyword phrase that I want to go after and there is a stop word in the keyword phrase - "to".

The domain name for this exact keyword phrase is taken, but the domain name for the phrase without the stop word is actually available.

The domain that is taken does not show up in the top ten but I haven't done more research on that particular site yet.

I wanted to know if anyone out there has some experience with this type of situation and what their recommendations are.

Do you think the keyword phrase without the stop word would rank better than the keyword phrase with the stop word, if all other factors were equal?

I have tried to do some research on other keywords that have stop words in them and I have seen a lot of results that have domain names with the stop words included. I have not been able to find competing domain names in search results that do not have the stop words.

Any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated.

I would also love to know of some particular keyword phrases that show a mix of domain names in the top ten (some with and some without the stop words) - just for reference, if anyone knows of any.

I've been around this forum for about two years, but I believe this is the first new thread that I have started. I have tried to chime in with some advice when I know the answer to someone's question, but I have just never found the need to ask a question myself until now.