This week we will run a series of 10 Maryland Million Moments, indelible moments that have helped to define the meaning of Maryland’s Day at the Races. Here, Spartianos provides 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 carved out his own place in Maryland Million history, while at the same time providing one more win to one of the event’s most enduring dynasties.

The bay gelding, bred in Pennsylvania by Two Legends Farm and David Wade, turned in the race of his life in the $125,000 Maryland Million Turf, fighting off relentless challenges to win by a desperate head. It was the only stakes victory in a career that saw him make 32 starts, win six times, and bank $307,014.

But Spartianos’ triumph carried a weight beyond his own record. He was a son of Not For Love, the stallion who defined the Maryland Million like no other. The win was, to date, the last in one of the event’s major stakes for the great sire, who compiled an unmatched total of 38 Maryland Million victories—16 more than his nearest rivals, Allen’s Prospect and Great Notion.

Spartianos’ gritty score came just two years after Not For Love had been pensioned at Northview Stallion Station, and only a year after the legendary sire’s death from colic in 2016. By then, his legacy was firmly entrenched.

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

Then-10-year-old Clubman’s 2024 starter handicap win may prove to be the final Million day victory of any sort for the sons and daughters of Not For Love. None is entered on this year’s card.

For Spartianos, the Turf was a career highlight; for Not For Love, it was a fitting coda to a record-shattering run. Together, horse and sire ensured that the Maryland Million’s history would always carry their names side by side.