When Not for Love came on the market he was offered to me as a stallion prospect. Then as now the domestic stallion market was/is pretty thin. Especially for horses with a moderate race record and little to no stakes performance regardless of pedigree.
But Not for Love has/had an out standing pedigree and being a full brother to the the highly regarded and Champion 2 year old colt Rhythm a year before he was born certainly helped get people’s attention along with having the highly coveted Phipps blood. He was a well made horse also.
From the mid 80’s to late 90s my bread and butter business was brokering “inexpensive” stallion prospects to various parts of the world. I did a lot of business in South America especially Argentina. I had a close relationship with the leading stud farm Argentina, Haras La Quebrada the owner Hernán Ceriani Cernadas became a very good friend and mentor. He wanted Not for Love desperately. If he hadn’t been owned by Mr. Phipps he would have gone to stud in Argentina.
They turned down our offer because they wanted to keep the horse in this country. He was sold to Richard Golden who owns Northview in the spring of 95 for less than what I had offered for my client. If memory serves I pretty sure we offered $350,000. I seem to remember the asking price being $300,000.
Golden continued to race him making his next start in a graded stake at Hialeah with McGaughey and was unplaced. Transferred to a young Graham Motion who was just starting out on his own. He made 9 starts, 8 with Graham for Golden in 1995 all in Maryland. Unplaced in several stakes he did win 2 allowance races at Laurel. Retired to Northview in 1996.
The fact that he went on to be a highly respected stallion speaks volumes given the fact he was not getting “Kentucky quality” mares. Though people did take notice and shipped mare from KY to breed to him. He stood for as much as $25,000 I believe and settled to $15,000 to $20,000 for pretty much up unto the time he was retired. His fertility was a bit tricky in his later years. But he was well managed and if the mares being sent to him were the same they generally got in foal. I bred to him several times as did clients. Even though our farm is located pretty close to NV we chose to send the mare to them because they knew how to get them in foal. He was not always on a “regular” breeding schedule, timing was everything.
Kentucky came calling several times to purchase, re syndicate. Golden kept controlling interest in him when he was syndicated and had no interest in letting his Flagship horse be moved. Can’t blame him but I know the shareholders were not happy. They would have enjoyed a CONSIDERABLE return on their investment.
So there you have it a bit of the history behind the horse.
