By JOE DRAPE

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - It is perhaps fitting that the 2002 Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem resides in luxury, cloistered in his own barn and surrounded by high-quality mares on the island of Hokkaido in Japan.
By all accounts, he is a happy horse - gamboling through fields most of the day, showing the stride that propelled him to lead every step of the way in America’s greatest horse race.
In reality, however, War Emblem is in therapy.
He is isolated from the other studs at Shadai Stallion Station in the hope that he will feel safe and more confident in his sexuality. Mares surround him in an effort to revive a long-dormant libido.
In nearly five and a half years of contact with hundreds of mares, War Emblem, now 9, has managed to mate with only 70 of them, which is half of most stallions’ yearly output.
He has not produced a live foal since 2005, and the last time it was confirmed that he ejaculated in the company of a mare was in 2006. He did it once.
“We know he is fertile, but he has no interest in mares,” said Dr. Nobuo Tsunoda, the director of the farm.
War Emblem showed his distaste for the breeding game as soon as he arrived in Japan. In 2003, he covered only 7 of the 350 mares booked to him even though the farm offered him variety - from maiden to older, experienced mares .
“We tried everything,” Mr. Tsunoda said. “War Emblem, everyone, were physically and mentally exhausted.”
In an industry that requires horses to breed the old-fashioned way, War Emblem’s lack of interest has been costly, as well as another reminder that for the winner of the Kentucky Derby, there are no guarantees.
Shadai bought War Emblem for $17 million to replace another Derby champion, Sunday Silence, who had been Japan’s lead sire. By conservative estimates, it has lost as much as $55 million in stud fees.
Even more frustrating for the farm is that the 26 sons and daughters who have made it to the track this year have become terrific racehorses, capturing six stakes races and putting their reluctant father near the top of Japan’s leading sire list.
In fact, it was his offspring’s recent success that prompted Shadai to renew its efforts to turn War Emblem into an enthusiastic sire. They had not been focused on the horse in recent years, and the Yoshida family, which owns Shadai, even spoke of selling War Emblem to an American farm.
In Kentucky, breeders seem mystified by War Emblem’s plight.
Most have had experience with shy and reluctant and downright difficult stallions.
“He was one the quirkiest horses I’ve ever had,” said the trainer Bob Baffert, who won his third Derby with War Emblem and pulled into the Belmont Stakes with a chance to sweep the Triple Crown. The big, black son of Our Emblem, however, stumbled at the gate and finished eighth.
“He was real temperamental,” Mr. Baffert said. “He did not like other horses or people that much. We used to joke that he may have had an unhappy childhood.”