We bought Noisetine after seeing her race on television. Sandra had noticed her as a good, game chaser; but in the winter of 2006/07 the mare seemed to have lost her form and it looked like she was nearing the end of her racing career. I checked her pedigree and found it had rather more depth than I expected. Her sire was Mansonnien (also the sire of our mare Just Beautiful), who I now realised was a high-class stallion; her dam had bred several winners including a very useful full-brother, Manguier; and the grand-dam was the dam of 7 winners of 26 races in France including two good racehorses that were now stallions. In all Noisetine had won 8 races (3 hurdles & 5 chases) and placed in the first four another 15 times, for earnings of £77,085. Her highest OR was 137 and her best RPR 140.
We rang Venetia Williams, her trainer, to ask if she might be for sale. Venetia said that this was unlikely as her owner would probably want to breed from the mare herself, but she took our number. However, she rang back a few weeks later to say that the mare was available for purchase and quoted what we thought was a reasonable price. We agreed the purchase subject to viewing her.
We liked what we saw: a big liver-chestnut mare with good depth and limbs, though a slightly plain head; and the deal was confirmed. It was getting late in the stud season so we arranged that ‘Noisey’ would be taken straight to Ireland to be covered by Old Vic. We met her again at Sunnyhill Stud when viewing the stallions, and were told by stud-owner Michael Hickey that he thought her unlikely to get in foal that season. Fortunately, Michael was wrong.
Noisetine’s first foal, born in 2008, was a backward, light bay colt with a pronounced Roman nose. He took a long time to come to hand but did so at just the right time, at the Derby Sale in June 2011, where he showed well and floated over the ground when trotted up by Michael Moore’s brother-in-law Richard Rohan, who himself moved with a grace that would have been the envy of Nureyev (the ballet dancer, not the horse).
The gelding brought €57,000 from Anna Ross, to be trained by Ben Case, and was named Kernel Victor. I held out great hopes for him but he suffered joint problems every time the trainer tried to get him in condition to race, and he never appeared under Rules. Moved to then Point-to-Point trainer Ed Walker, Kernel Victor proved a decent pointer, winning 9 races and placing 14 times in only 24 races.
Kernel Victor’s problems couldn’t have been fully apparent by June 2012 because Anna Ross also bought Noisey’s next foal, a nice-looking gelding by Kayf Tara that had also been a backward foal, this time for €31,000. Named Miracle At Medinah and trained by her father, Arthur Moore, he placed in two Point-to-Points and two hunter chases, but showed no serious ability.
After being rested in 2009 and then proving barren to Milan in 2010, Noisey produced a Black Sam Bellamy colt in 2012. He not only had plenty of substance but also a turn on the off fore that had not responded to treatment by the time of the November Foal Sale, where he accordingly brought only €3,500. Later named Prefad, his best efforts were 3rd in a Point-to-Point and 4th in a Hunter chase.
When I split up with Sandra we each retained one mare and sold the rest, either at auction or to Michael Moore. Noisetine would have been my top pick, based on racing ability, looks and pedigree; but she hadn’t bred a winner by then, so I played the odds and went with a mare that had produced the bumper and hurdles winner Scholastica. That is how I came to keep La Perrotine.
I sold Noisetine in foal to Shirocco to Michael Moore in December 2012 for around one-quarter of what I had paid for her five years earlier. Michael didn’t really come out on top on the deal either, for the mare continued to be disappointing as a producer of winners. The filly foal by Shirocco, Unfinished, placed third in her first Point-to-Point and then broke down, although her subsequent Sholokhov filly, Watergate Lady, placed three times in NH Flat races for Denis Leahy and was sold for decent money before achieving very little more.
With a breeding record that was ‘spotty’ to say the least, but still believing in her potential, I traded Noisetine back from Michael Moore, who had definitely lost confidence in her. She produced a filly by Telescope in 2018, then failed to get in foal to Dartmouth before producing a premature dead foal by the same sire. Unlikely to be able to produce further live foals, Noisey had to leave us iin Spring 2020. Her final foal was sold as a 3YO for only €4,500 to Chris Barber, for whom she was unplaced on her only run.
Sadly, it is now clear that Noisetine failed to live up to the broodmare potential I once thought she had in abundance. What a stroke of luck I had that Scholastica started her racing career so well!
