With Momentum on its Side, National Thoroughbred League Looks to Have Its Biggest Year in 2025

[Wandering Eyes]

The National Thoroughbred League (NTL), which is looking to bring the team concept to horse racing, has had more than its fair share of growing pains since it started in 2023. The series starts up again on May 10 at Pimlico and league organizers are confident the 2025 version of the NTL will be the biggest and most successful so far.

“We definitely have momentum on our side and we're offering good purses,” said NTL co-founder Randall Lane. “It's a win-win. The horses will be  running for good purses and we're going to get consistent rosters. Our fans will get to know the horses.”

When Lane and partner Bob Daugherty came up with the NTL concept they originally intended to purchase enough horses on their own to fill out the team's roster. That proved to be too difficult to pull off, so they held their races assigning horse owned by others to the teams. That didn't allow for much continuity and fans obviously found it hard to root for a team when they had no idea which horses would race for which team.

Lane believes that they have figured out a solution to that problem. Lane and Daugherty have been busy talking to owners and trainers and found a formula they think will work. They have gotten commitments from many horsemen who want their horses to participate in NTL races. The owners will still own the horses and all purse money will go their way. The incentive is that they will be running for good purses in NTL races, purses that top what they normally run for. With the 2025 schedule expanding to four race weekends more than $2.5 million in prize purses will be paid out.

They now have a pool of available horses and there will be a draft next week prior to the Pimlico races. There will be four rounds of NTL races, which will also be held at Parx, Fairmount Park and Kentucky Downs, and Lane expects many of the horses to stay in and continue to race in NTL races. At each stop, there will be three races for the NTL horses.

Parx is the second stop after Pimlico and in the NTL races horses who started in NTL races at Pimlico will have first preference to get into the races.

“We talked to many owner and showed them what we're doing,” Lane said. “They will be drafted by teams for the whole season. We'll have consistent horses and consistent rosters throughout season using horses other people own. But their horses, they get to be athletes for the National Thoroughbred League.

What Lane is trying to accomplish is much more than running a handful of races at four tracks.

In the press release that revealed the NTL's 2025 schedule, the league explained what it is that they are trying to accomplish.

“The National Thoroughbred League (NTL) is a first-of-its-kind racing league re-imagining America's oldest spectator sport by creating a team-based professional sports league, by consistently and safely running exceptional horses allowing fans the chance to root for the same stars month after month and year after year,” it read. “The NTL is also a lifestyle, creating weekends of food, fashion and fun akin to the Kentucky Derby or Formula I.”

Lane wants each stop to be an event, the type that will appeal to people who are not necessarily racing fans. With that in mind, the NTL will produce trading cards for all the horses who take part in the series.

“We want this to be a way that casual sports fans can fall in love with thoroughbred racing,” he said. “Rooting for teams, celebrities, each race is an event. People will get dressed up. Our industry doesn't have enough big events. It has many but not enough. There's a need for more. We want the casual fan to pay attention to racing more than four times a year, the Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup. In seven, eight years we want this to be the gateway so that tens of thousands of people every month fall in love with sport.”

Part of the attraction is that the NTL will bring a prominent celebrity in for each event as a host. The Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson will host the Pimlico event.

“We have Lamar Jackson hosting and he is the biggest celebrity in Baltimore,” Lane said.

Julius Erving, along with members of the Philadelphia Eagles, will be the host at the Parx event. Tanya Tucker will be in for the Kentucky Downs races. Lane said he wasn't ready to announce the name of the celebrity that will be the host at Fairmount Park but promised that it will be a “very special guest.”

So far, the NTL events have been held at smaller racetracks. Lane said he has had talks with major tracks but thinks the concept works better at tracks that don't normally host major events. He said that when the NTL came to Turf Paradise in Phoenix, they had their biggest handle this century.

“We want to go to tracks where if we bring 5,000, 10,000 people it makes a difference,” he said.

The event at Parx will be held over the June 14, 15 weekend. The Fairmount Park event will be held on July 19 and the series concludes with races at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 31.

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