By Katherine O. Rizzo (first appeared in the October 2022 Equiery)

With the Jim McKay Maryland Million set to run on October 22 at Laurel Park, we would like to salute Maryland’s all-time leading Thoroughbred sires with a brief walk down memory lane. Here are Maryland’s top five lifetime leading sires by money won as of the conclusion of the 2021 racing season.

#1 Not for Love
According to the Maryland Horse Breeders Association records, Not for Love is the top sire based on money won, number of winners and number of wins as of the conclusion of the 2021 racing season! As of the end of 2021, his progeny had racked up $81,904,429 in money won. He has sired 686 winners that have won 2,934 races.

Not for Love was bred in Kentucky and owned by Ogden Mills Phipps during his racing career. He ran 29 times, earning $178,870 with six wins, seven seconds and five third place finishes. He was trained by Shug McGaughey and Graham Motion. He last raced on October 3, 1995 at Laurel Park as a five-year-old and was sold to Richard Golden of Northview Stallion Station. He entered the breeding shed the following year at Northview Stallion Station’s Maryland farm where he stood at stud until 2015. Not for Love was euthanized on May 29, 2016 due to complications from colic.

Standing at only 16 hands, Not for Love was by Claiborne Farm’s Mr. Prospector who was sired by Raise A Native. Raise A Native is the Kentucky son of Maryland’s famed stallion Native Dancer who was bred and owned by Alfred G. Vanderbilt of Sagamore Farm. Not For Love’s dam was one of Phipps’ top broodmares, Dance Number, also Kentucky-bred. Dance Number is by Windfields Farm’s Northern Dancer, who also spent time as a stud in Maryland starting in 1968.

As a sire, Not for Love led the Maryland regional sire list from 2003 through 2011 and then again in 2014 through 2016. He also led all American sires based outside of Kentucky in 2003, 2004 and 2007 through 2010. In 2008, Not for Love became the second American stallion based outside of Kentucky to top $6 million in progeny earnings in a single year.

One of his most popular offspring was Maryland-bred Eighttofasttocatch (Not for Love x Too Fast Too Catch), who was Not for Love’s most recent son to earn the millionaire status.
The Not for Love Stakes is run annually at Laurel Park and is for Maryland-bred horses age 4 and up.

To read more about this legendary stallion, read The Equiery’s 2015 article: https://equiery.com/not-for-love-marylands-leading-thoroughbred-sire-retires/

#2 Orientate
In 2013, Grade 1 sire Orientate was moved from Gainesway in Kentucky to Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City where he stood until being pensioned in 2018. By the time of his arrival in Maryland, Orientate had already sired 35 stakes winners in seven crops with total progeny earnings of nearly $34 million. He finished his breeding career with $49,777,456 in money won by progeny as of the end of 2021. He was also ranked as the second sire on the Maryland lifetime by number of wins list with 2,104 from 546 offspring.

As a racehorse, Orientate, who is Kentucky-bred, won 10 out of 19 starts for $1,716,950 in career earnings. At three years old, Orientate won both the Indiana Derby and the Sir Beaufort Stakes. He won the Breeders’ Cup Spring G1 the following year and won an Eclipse for Champion Sprinter in 2002.

Bred by Gainseway Thoroughbreds Ltd, Orientate is by champion sprinter Mt. Livermore and out of Dream Team, by Coxs Ridge. Orientate’s lineage can be traced back to the famed Nasrullah, bred by H.H. Aga Khan III in 1940.

#3 Petionville
Maryland lines pop up again in the state’s number three lifetime leading sire by money won, Petionville, who is by the Mr. Prospector son Seeking the Gold. Petionville is out of the Wavering Monarch mare Vana Turns.

Bred by Glencrest Farm in Kentucky, Petionville won $811,905 during his racing career from seven wins over 15 starts. He last raced in October 1996 and entered the breeding shed at Crestwood Farm in Kentucky the following year. Petionville then bounced around a bit but landed in Maryland in 2014 where he stood at Murmur Farm in Darlington until pensioned in 2021.

He has sired 531 winners who earned $46,413,039 from 1,974 wins as of the end of the 2021 racing season. One of his top progeny is Island Fashion, a 2000 grey mare who retired from racing in 2007. She earned $2,037,970 in 30 starts. Bred and owned by Everest Stables Inc., Island Fashion is out of Danzigs Fashion, by A Native Danzig who is by the legendary sire Danzig.

#4 Louis Quatorze
The fourth horse on the Maryland lifetime sires by money won list is 1996 Preakness Stakes winner Louis Quatorze. Bred by Georgie E. Hofmann in Kentucky and trained by Nick Zito, Louis Quatorze is by Sovereign Dancer, who is by Northern Dancer. His dam is On To Royalty, by On To Glory.

After a stellar racing career in which he won $2,054,434 in career earnings from 18 starts, Louis Quatorze first entered stud in 1998 at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. He was shuttled back and forth to Argentina until arriving in Maryland in 2004 where he stood at Murmur Farm. Louis Quatorze died in his paddock from a heart attack in 2017 and is buried at Murmur Farm.

As of the end of 2021, he had sired 577 winners earning $38,606,294 in 1,979 races. Louis Quatorze is ranked second for Maryland lifetime sires by number of winners and third by number of wins. Some of his top stakes winners were millionaires Repent (out of Baby Grace) and Choctaw Nation (out of Melisma). Choctaw Nation ran third in the 2005 G1 Dubai World Cup.

#5 Lion Hearted
Lion Hearted was bred in Kentucky by Phipps Stable and won 13 of 18 starts for $191,630 in career earnings. The son of Storm Cat and out of the Alydar mare Cadillacing, stood his entire breeding career at Northview Stallion Station in Maryland. Alydar is by Vanderbilt’s Native Dancer and Cadillacing is the full sister of champion and classic winner Easy Goer.

Lion Hearted entered the breeding shed at Northview in 2001 where he produced 389 winners, as of the end of 2021. His offspring have won 1,335 races for a total of $30,189,097. In 2004, Lion Hearted was the Mid-Atlantic region’s leading freshman sire.

At the time of his death in 2015, Lion Hearted’s top progeny was multiple stakes winner Silver Heart, who is out of the Holy Bull mare Holy Princess. Silver Heart, bred in West Virginia by Nancy Terhune and Ernest Frohboese, won the 2010 West Virginia Breeders’ Classic and ran second in the 2010 Maryland Million Distaff. The filly won the Maryland Million Distaff the following year as a seven-year-old. She also won the West Virginia Breeders’ Classic again that year.

Other notable progeny include the Maryland-bred Roaring Lion (out of Smartly by Horatius). Bred by Buckingham Farm and owned by Repole Stable, Roaring won the Maryland Million Sprint as a five-year-old and then went on to win the Mr. Prospector Stakes at six and again at seven.

Statistics for this article were gathered from Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, Bloodhorse, the Paulick Report and Pedigree Online Thoroughbred Database.