Lamar Jackson with the winners of the NTL 2025 launch race.
Gracieuse: National thoroughbred League
The Baltimore Ravens quarterrier, Lamar Jackson, has a singular goal both on the football field and as owner of the Maryland Colts horse racing franchise in the national thoroughbred league.
“I just want to win a championship,” Jackson told CNBC. “I want to win one in the National Football League. I want to win one in the NTL.”
Jackson bought the Maryland Colts in 2024, based the franchise in Baltimore where Colt nickname was previously attached to a team from the Super Bowl National Football League.
Maryland colts are part of the NTL with 10 franchises, which operates a new team concept for horse racing. The teams earn points depending on how their horses and jockeys finish in each competition, similar to the car race. These points are totalized at the end of the season to determine the winner of the NTL championship.
Jackson is part of an increasing trend of active and retired NFL back-up in search of equity in sports teams.
The legendary quarter Tom Brady owns the minority in the Raiders of Las Vegas of the NFL, and the former quarter-rear of the NFL, Peyton Manning, is the owner of a minority in the Grizzlies of Memphis of the National Basketball Association.
The current quarter of Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, has a participation in the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball, Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer and the Miami Picklebel Club of Major League Pickleball. He also invested in the Alpine Auto Racing team of Formula 1.
Jackson said that beyond the colts, he did not have the immediate intention of appropriating in other sports teams. Instead, the most useful double player in the NFL focuses on creating an impact.
“When we seek to invest, it must be something significant. I have to see long -term goals when I do something,” said Jackson. “This is how I move when I am in the investment space.”
In addition to bringing a team of horse racing to town, Jackson hopes to bring new opportunities to young people from Baltimore.
Lamar Jackson signs football for a young fan.
Gracieuse: National thoroughbred League
On Saturday, when the NTL launched its 2025 season at the Pimlico Race Race in Baltimore, Jackson organized a community day where he invited young people to find out about horse racing and industry.
“The reason why I got involved in the NTL is that I saw the vision. Make the disadvantaged, it is obvious to me,” he said. “There are many disadvantaged children in Baltimore, and they look at football players for hope and advice.”
The colts ranked third from the opening weekend.
Jackson played university football at the University of Louisville, about one mile from the famous race track Churchill Downs, home in Kentucky Derby. But Lamar said he had never attended the university race.
However, his love for horses started much younger, when he grew up in Florida.
“I have always been intrigued by horses,” said Jackson, “I come from Cypress, a small town of Pompano Beach. There was always this horse track and this horse race in our region.”
The NTL is only one of the many efforts to modernize horse races. The three tracks that host the triple crown of horse racing have planned projects to modernize and attract new fans.
Churchill Downs announced a renovation plan of nearly a billion dollars in February before suspending these plans due to prices. Pimlico, which welcomes the preakness, will start a renovation of $ 400 million after the race on Saturday. Belmont Park in the suburbs of New York is renovating more than $ 455 million.