NEW BROODMARE VENTURE FOR NORTHMORE THOROUGHBREDS

The relocation of Rodney and Tammy Notman’s Northmore Thoroughbreds from Elphinstone, near Kyneton, to Murchison has allowed the husband and wife team to add to their horse interests.
As well as pin hooking and preparing yearlings for the big sales, including Melbourne Premier, the couple have bought broodmares in foal over the past months.
They have had their property, which is near Nagambie for two years, but have been living there for the past 12 months.
And like their horses, they also thriving at their new farm.
“It’s going good,” Notman said. “We have four foals on the ground and we are traveling okay and we are getting ready for Premier.”
They have three on the Northmore Thoroughbreds books. Another two are owned by Tammy and two of her friends, Fiona Pengelly and Tianie Storey, who and breed the foals under the name of Golden Girls Thoroughbreds.
The five mares have already produced foals this season by some exceptional stallions.
“We have had a Toronado, a Written By, a Street Boss, a Magnus and a Pierata is still to come,” Notman said.
“We have just tried to keep a bit of a mix and bought a few mares this year which is something new for us.
“My wife and her two friends have a couple of mares which they bred from last year and with the Northmore Thoroughbreds brand, and we have bought three broodmares which were in foal to Toronado, Written By and the Pierata.”
After buying the mare in foal to Toronado and another two mares in Sydney, Notman is hoping that that they have bought well.
“With the Toronado, we only had to wait six weeks and I had a foal,” he said.
“We looked around and bought them and have never really done that ourselves and we have only really bought weanlings and prepped for other people.”
The three mares are Kyria (Encosta De Lago x Rhema) which is due to foal to Pierata; Satinka (Stravinsky x Miss Saigon) which has had a Written By filly and Salonika (Galileo x Saloon) had a Toronado filly.
With the Golden Girls, they bought the unraced Ocean Cruise (Akeed Mofeed x Ocean Dream) online last year in foal to Lean Mean Machine which produced a filly which will be put through the Premier sale. The mare has foaled to Street Boss.
“She has had a chestnut colt and he is a real belter,” Tammy said.
“We bought the mare in foal for $15,000 and she is half to Amphitrite (Sebring).
“The Lean Mean Machine filly is pretty strong and I think we have done quite all right getting her into foal to Street Boss.”
Amphitrite, who won on the Group Thousand Guineas and the Group 2 Edward Manifold Stakes, was sold to Japanese interests last year.
The Golden Girls’ other broodmare is Moet Rose which was actually bred by Tammy and Rodney.
The seven-year-old mare is by Bel Esprit and won three races, including a dead heat at Sandown over 1200m.
“She has had a Magnus filly this year,” she said.
And Rodney said the Bel Esprit mare cross with Magnus is about 85 per cent winners to runners.
They plan to head to Melbourne Premier with their horses, but they could also offer a couple of them as weanlings.
“We don’t know yet,” he said.
“They’ll probably go to premier next year but we’ll just see how they turn out.”
Notman said they were extremely happy with the prices they achieved for clients at this year’s Melbourne Premier Sale, highlighted by a $340,000 sale for a Capitalist x Grand Gesture colt and $240,000 for an All Too Hard x Sherbet Bomb colt and $150,000 for a Written Tycoon x Spot The Diff colt.
They will be offering 12 yearlings at next year’s Melbourne Premier.
Notman said they wanted to restrict their yearlings to 10 to 12 as they do the preparations themselves and don’t have any staff.
“We want to get them as good as we can get them and then you have no excuses and you are giving people every chance of turning out a really good horse,” he said.
“I don’t want to get where there are 20 or 30 of them and you lose control of them.
“I am a farrier by trade but Tammy and I put in for that three or four months and at the time you are getting a bit tired and all that but at the end of the day you will see the end result and it keeps you going for the next year.”
Notman’s long list of clients where he does farrier work includes Seymour Park, Springmount, Cityview Farm and Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds.
He said they are still building and establishing facilities on their farm.
Notman said they had out grown their previous 15 acre farm near Kyneton, but their Murchison property is 45 acres and irrigated.
“This is going to be purpose-built for what we want,” he said.
“We have got 12 boxes and a big barn and we are just trying to do a little bit as we can do it and have it as good as we can get it.
“The weather is much nicer up here. I go down to the Macedon Ranges for my work and there is no comparison and I should have done it years ago.
“You might get a bit of rain, but today they are lying out in the sun.”
When the Notmans moved to the property, it had previously been used for some cattle and sheep, and there was an old dairy.
“Tammy and I ripped down all the fences and we have done the whole lot,” Notman said.
“It has got all new fences and new barn, everything is new.”
They continue to pin hook and this year have three colts and two fillies which will also head to Melbourne Premier. They include progeny by Toronado, Written By, Starspangledbanner and Shalaa.
He has been given filly by The Autumn Sun which will be prepped for the sale and yearlings include a Shamus Award, two by Lean Mean Machine.
“We are pretty full,” Notman said.
But they couldn’t be happier as they see their results of hard work.