Success lives here

Tamalee Farm is a collection of smaller holdings totalling approximately 800 acres on the Old Winton Road, Tamworth, very close to Tamworth Airport.

Blessed with a mixture of different soils which produce very good pasture, the majority of Tamalee has been owned by former Sydney Turf Club chairman Bruce McHugh for over 20 years, but until recently it had been used to run cattle exclusively. This changed during the past few years with McHugh’s growing passion for his breeding interests, allied to his involvement with exciting young sire Arlington, a close relation to this season's top-class Gr1 sprinter-miler Black Heart Bart. A $1.55 million Magic Millions Premier Sale yearling, whose half-brother Savabeel won the Cox Plate and is now New Zealand’s Champion Sire, Arlington (Red Ransom-Savannah Success) was a talented racehorse whose city-winning form included multiple stakes placings, among them precocious efforts as a 2-year-old in the Listed Canonbury Stakes (1100m) & Listed Fernhill Stakes (1600m), before a fast closing third behind champion Weekend Hussler as a 3-year-old in the time-honoured Gr1 Randwick Guineas over a mile. He trained on to further Group placings as a 5 and 6-year-old, displaying the type of soundness he is throwing to his progeny.

With a lot of support coming from the Tamworth region for Arlington, who stood his first four seasons at Nick Posa’s Lincoln Farm, the decision was made to transfer the son of Red Ransom to Tamalee Farm. The timing was perfect as Arlington's progeny have really come into their own as maturing horses, with the emerging stallion prospect now the sire of 20 individual winners of 38 races for earnings over $1 million.

Experienced farm manager Ken Blanch has worked for over a decade at Tamalee Farm, where he has built all of the farm’s considerable amenities. Tamalee is able to agist mares all the year around, as well as prepare horses for sale. With the farm’s five key staff all having long histories in the thoroughbred industry, among the services offered is education of young horses in conjunction with excellent professionals who work close by.

Colts and fillies at Tamalee are separated by sex, and the respective groups are run in large, separate, paddocks where, as is the case with mares, supplementary feeding is mandatory.

With close access to a highly skilled regional horse veterinarian, Tamalee’s fees for mares range between $22 inc GST a day for dry mares to $25 inc GST a day for wet mares. Foaling down and weaning each cost $400. As would be expected from a property of this caliber, Tamalee Farm’s large, lush naturally grassed paddocks, are well protected with electric fencing.

While, understandably, McHugh would be delighted to have resident mares visit Arlington in 2018, Tamalee Farm also offers walk-on options to the Hunter Valley’s other stud farms which lie just over an hour to the South of Tamworth.