At age 21, Not For Love is a little bit spoiled. Set in his ways, he knows what he likes. He likes grass. He likes being outside, away from the hustle and bustle. And when he comes inside, he likes a little warm water and honey in his mash. He also likes mares who have been to the breeding shed more than once.
"I think he's a just a wise old man," Northview Stallion Station manager Louis Merryman said. "He's had enough of putting up with younger women."
Over the years, 16 of them in the breeding shed now, Not For Love has had more than average success.
This is the eighth consecutive year that he has been the most successful stallion in United States breeding outside Kentucky. As this breeding season approaches in February, he is ranked No. 8 in the world on the General Active Sire List, which is based on the average worldwide earnings per runner of a stallion's offspring. With his progeny's average earnings coming in at $87,461, he is right behind Pulpit, Tiznow and Dynaformer. A.P. Indy leads the list with average winnings of $137,342.
"There are two ways to make the list," Dr. Tom Bowman said. "One, you can have a stallion that sires two or three horses that each make a couple million dollars apiece or you can sire consistent horses that stay around and race for a long time. He's had a high percentage of stakes winners, but never a Grade I winner. What he is an extraordinarily consistent sire of quality racehorses. If you breed to race, Not For Love is as good as any horse around."
Bowman, the farm veterinarian and part owner of Northview, which handles the 40-share syndicate that owns Not For Love, said what the stallion has accomplished while being, basically, a local standing stallion is itself "extraordinary."
Last year, Not For Love's offspring produced 108 wins in 191 starts, according to statistics compiled from the General Sire List that appeared in the Thoroughbred Times Today on Jan. 5.
Not For Love is a star, though you'd never know it to look at him on this cold winter's day. The bay, with a milk chocolate body and dark chocolate mane , tail and legs, does not look like the glossy Photoshopped pictures of stallions you see in advertising brochures from Kentucky. Not For Love looks like your favorite pet. His hair is shaggy and covered with blotches of mud.
"We're having a stallion show [Sunday]," said Bowman, who expects as many as 250 horse owners to attend and look over the farm's eight stallions. "We'll dust him off for that, but we operate with the same motto as Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. A horse is a horse. We treat them like horses. It would take a blizzard to keep him in the barn, and we don't do cosmetic things like blanketing. He has his own winter hair coat which insulates him and repels rain and snow, and it's much healthier for the horses to be allowed to get exercise and graze."
On this day, as he comes down the path from his distant corral, Not For Love walks confidently beside Merryman, who cares for the animal with Francisco Torres and Sergio Gomez. And it seems as if it is Not For Love who is in charge and not the other way around.
"Sometimes I'm a little jealous," Merryman said. "He doesn't have to put up with a lot. And at this time of year, he's about as laid-back and easygoing as any stallion I've ever been around. But don't get in his way at dinnertime."
At Northview, Not For Love goes to the field at 6:15 a.m. and stays there until around 4 p.m. This is the horse's life. Unless it is breeding season, which runs from February to June. Then he will come back to his stall at 1 p.m. to be ready for his date an hour later.
And it is in breeding season that Not For Love does world-class work.
Like his dad, Mr. Prospector, Not For Love is passing on good genes. He stands 15-hands (a hand equals 4 inches) tall and is a solid, powerful horse. The babies he breeds turn out to be correct physical yearlings who grow into durable racehorses. Overall, he has sired 126 stakes horses and his offspring have earned more than $52.6 million. Last year, his progeny won $4.4 million for that $87,230 average.
While Not For Love was stakes-placed as a racehorse, he won only six of 29 races. As Bowman said, "He was an ordinary racehorse with a sterling pedigree." The fact that Not For Love, like Mr. Prospector, continues to retain his potency long past when most stallions begin winding down their careers is another blessing for Northview.
"My summation of him is that he's been a gift," Bowman said. "We were lucky enough to have him fall into our hands because Richard Golden [who shares ownership in Northview] had an ownership interest in him before he was retired. He's become the epitome of our success. He's a terrific horse, and though we've had calls to send him to South America and to sell him, the decision was made long ago that he belongs to Northview and the state of Maryland."
David Hayden, who co-owns Dark Hollow Farm in Upperco with his wife, JoAnn, and owns a share of Not For Love, said that despite the increased numbers of stallions standing in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware, Not For Love, in his opinion, "is the only commercially viable stallion standing in the Mid-Atlantic."
Not For Love, not unexpectedly given his world ranking, is the top-rated stallion in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. He is one win shy of the top spot among all Maryland Million sires. And he and two of his eight stable-mates, Lion Hearted and Dance With Ravens, account for three of the top 5 stallions in Maryland. Murmur Farm's Louis Quatorze, the former Preakness winner, and Outflanker, the property of the Maryland Stallion Station, are the other two.
"Not For Love is a must-use horse," Hayden said. "He has a wonderful pedigree, is a good producer of yearlings for sale, and his offspring continue to win. He's a horse you can count on."
To have a mare mate with Not For Love costs $20,000. Last year, he mated with 75 mares and is expected to do so again this season.
How much longer can he go on? No one knows. But in a nearby paddock Two Punch, another Mr. Prospector son, is 28. Remarkably, he, too, will be working in the breeding shed again this season.