National Thoroughbred League

The National Thoroughbred League (NTL), a racing start-up meant to bring the league concept to Thoroughbred racing, will debut Sept. 3 at Kentucky Downs, but the first few events on the schedule will be run under a format different than what was envisioned when the formation of the league was announced. Under the original concept, all horses performing in NTL races were to be owned by the League itself and would be portioned off to six teams representing different cities. Each team was to have six horses and the team...

Kentucky Downs is adding the $500,000 National Thoroughbred League H. to its already lucrative stakes schedule, the track announced on Monday. The one-mile event for 3-year-olds and up will be worth $300,000 with an additional $200,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund up for grabs. It will be contested on Sunday Sept. 3. The newest stakes race is named after the Kentucky Downs Day sponsor, which is a new concept based on teams of horses representing different owners and markets. The jockeys in the race will wear NTL team silks,...

Tom Ludt joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss the creation of the National Thoroughbred League and the organization's plans for the future.

Tom Ludt has worked for many organizations in the horse racing industry, but never one as ambitious and willing to think outside the box as the National Thoroughbred League (NTL). A group of investors who are planning to bring the team concept that is the backbone of the four major sports to racing has hired Ludt to be the league's president of horse operations. With the job, Ludt will be in charge of all things racing, including acquiring the horses that will make up the league. With the NTL set...

An event to announce the team owners, names, colors and logos for the six National Thoroughbred League teams promised the assembled crowd at Hudson Yards in Manhattan to do racing in a new and different way, and at least on this night, they delivered. The evening featured a fashion show—not of the racing silks or owners—but for the horses. Two horses brought into the city from Long Island showed off the six team colors and logos in compression suits, compression hoods and paddock blankets, parading up and down in the...

Some two years ago, Randall Lane, the chief content officer for Forbes, and Bob Daugherty, an investor and educator, met for dinner and the conversation turned to horse racing. Both are fans of racing and they started to talk about why the sport isn't nearly as popular as the four major sports. The answer, they concluded, is that in baseball, basketball, football and hockey, the sports center around teams, leagues and standings. People fall in love with their teams, they root for them, they pay to see them play, they...