With First Event Approaching, National Thoroughbred League Regroups

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 that accrued the most points during the series was to earn a $1-million bonus.

But NTL President of Horse Operations Tom Ludt said that no horses have been bought and there are no immediate plans to do so. Instead, Kentucky Downs will run the $500,000 National Thoroughbred League H. on Sunday, Sept. 3. Though the race is meant to bring attention to the NTL, it will be open to all horses. Despite being owned by outside interests, the jockeys riding in the race will wear NTL silks.

“This is not going to fail,” Ludt said. “We have made some changes to make it better for the long term. It's all about building up the League. We have pivoted into a different scenario for 2023 so that we are bigger, stronger and better organized. We're going to learn a lot for 2024.”

The second event on the NTL schedule is set to take place at the Meadowlands on the weekend of Oct. 13 and 14. Ludt said the plan for the Meadowlands event is to also have a race recognizing the NTL but, again, one open to all horses. Under the original schedule, the NTL was to go from the Meadowlands to Los Alamitos to Tampa Bay Downs. Ludt said plans for the Los Alamitos and Tampa Bay Downs races are still in flux.

Ludt said he advised the League's founders that buying horses at this time was not economically feasible.

“I talked them out of buying horses right now,” Ludt said. “I told them that when you look at what we're trying to accomplish this is a major task and when you look at the amount of money that needed to be spent on these horses it was tough. It's a start-up and we've run into some issues.”

Ludt said that one of the problems was that the races held at Kentucky Downs and the Meadowlands were scheduled for the grass, while the Los Alamitos and Tampa Bay Downs races were to be run on the dirt. That meant that any League horse who was a grass specialist would have nowhere to run for several months. Horses in the League are not permitted to run in outside races.

“We were going to run three or four events and then these horses were going to sit and the expense to keep them in training was going to be huge,” Ludt said. “So why buy them now? I talked them into not buying the horses. Some people are going to jump on that and say we failed. No, we have a plan.”

Ludt said he approached NTL organizers and suggested there are other ways to fill the teams' rosters other than buying dozens of horses. He also said he suggested that horses in the League be allowed to run in non-League races, but was told that is not in the League's plans.

“I told them, don't own the horses,” he said. “Instead, get creative. Look into partnerships. But they believe the League needs to own horses long term. That's fine, but you have to look at the numbers. Just the day rate alone for all these horses is going to be huge.”

Ludt said that even though the Kentucky Downs race will look different from what was originally planned, it will benefit the League. The NTL envisioned all of its races turning into events and is linking each one to such things as wine and food festivals and entertainment. On the night before the Kentucky Downs race, there will be a live performance by DJ Pee .Wee (aka Anderson .Paak) at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon.

“The way this thing set up, it is an event business with horse racing,” he said. “The truth of the matter is it needs to start off with more events and less horse racing. The goal is to grow the game. We don't need the Tom Ludts of the world to become a fan of the League. They already are racing fans. We need to get people like our neighbors and turn them into racing fans by exposing them to the League.

“At Kentucky Downs, let's have a an opening blowout event, a launch party. The people at Kentucky Downs are super behind this. Kentucky Downs is maybe the only track in America that has more money than they know what to do with and they were willing to put up a big race. Horses will run in our silks, but it's just that we won't own the horses. It's going to be great. It's just not the way we wanted to do it a year ago.”

So far as 2024 goes, Ludt said the plan is for the NTL to operate under the original plan and that he will begin the process of buying horses sometime early next year. He said there may be as many as eight teams in the League in 2024 and that the racing schedule will expand beyond the four racing dates scheduled for this year.