Maryland Million Moments: Not for Love’s Last Big Win * The Racing Biz

This week we will conduct a series of 10 Maryland Million Moments, indelible moments that helped define the meaning of Maryland’s Day at the Races. Here, Spartianos delivers what will be the final Million stakes win for all-time leading sire Not For Love.

On a warm October afternoon at Laurel Park in 2017, Spartianos cemented his own place in Maryland Million history while delivering another win for one of the event’s most enduring dynasties.

The bay gelding, bred in Pennsylvania by Two Legends Farm and David Wade, rode the race of his life in the $125,000 Maryland Million Turf, overcoming brutal challenges to win with a desperate head. It was the only stakes win in a career in which he made 32 starts, won six times and earned $307,014.

But Spartanos’ triumph outweighed his own record. He was a son of Not For Love, the stallion who defined the Maryland Million like no other. The victory was the latest yet in one of the event’s biggest stakes for the big daddy, who has an unprecedented total of 38 Maryland Million wins – 16 more than his nearest rivals, Allen’s Prospect and Great Notion.

Spartianos’ hard-hitting score came just two years after Not For Love retired from Northview Stallion Station, and just a year after the legendary father’s death from colic in 2016. By then, his legacy was firmly established.

“Not For Love will raise the bar in Maryland for all stallions that will be there in the future,” said Northview owner Richard Golden when he announced the horse’s retirement in 2015. Time has only proven Golden right.

The then 10-year-old Clubman’s starter’s handicap victory in 2024 could prove to be the last victory of any kind for the sons and daughters of Not For Love. There is nothing on this year’s menu.

For Spartianos, the Turf was a career highlight; for Not For Love it was a fitting coda to a record-breaking run. Together, horse and father ensured that the history of the Maryland Million would always bear their names side by side.