The Horse Racing League (HRL), the new team-based competition that will launch in the US next year, has agreed its first domestic broadcast deal with USA Sports, the newly established sports division of Versant, the cable company recently spun off from media giant NBCUniversal.
Through the deal, all three inaugural HRL race days will be shown live on the USA Network linear channel in 2027. The three race days will include multiple dirt and turf races.
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The events will take place at Gulfstream Park in Miami on March 13, Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on April 18, and Santa Anita Park in Los Angeles on May 15.
Celia Kohl, senior vice president of strategy and business development for Versant and USA Sports, said: “We’re excited to partner with HRL to present its inaugural season to viewers nationwide live on USA Network.
“HRL’s innovative new format, including action from some of horse racing’s most iconic tracks, will offer a fresh and invigorating way for fans to experience thoroughbred racing.”
HRL was launched earlier this year by Greg Maffei, the former chief executive of Liberty Media, and Danny Epstien, the founder of investment firm Skylark.
The organizers of the new 10-team league point to the success of the annual Kentucky Derby race as a key signifier of US interest in thoroughbred horse racing, claiming that the sport has a global fanbase of 36 to 48 million to be leveraged, and pointing to a US market of 200 million live event attendees and sports fans as another well of interest to be tapped.
On the new broadcast partnership, Maffei said: “USA Sports is the ideal partner for HRL as we focus on broadening fan interest in our league and attracting new and younger demographic to horse racing.
“Our vision of bringing more storytelling, deeper connections with teams, personalities, and our equine athletes that run these races is going to become a reality based in part on USA Network’s ability to reach people not just on television but on other social media platforms.”
Maffei stepped down as Liberty’s president and CEO at the end of 2024, ending a 19-year tenure.
Under his leadership, Liberty Media has significantly grown its media, sports, and entertainment assets, including massive growth in F1 and the acquisition of Dorna Sports, the promoter of MotoGP.
Several HRL team owners have already been confirmed, including horse racing organizations Godolphin and WinStar, which will each have one team in the league, and a third team co-owned by private equity investor Chris Pucillo of the firm Solus, media, film executive Gary Barber, and, perhaps most prominently in the sports industry, Vinnie Viola, owner of the Florida Panthers NHL team.
Last week, HRL announced the appointments of Renee Wilm as chief business officer, J-T Ladt as chief marketing officer and Clifford Lidell as chief brand officer and named sports and entertainment agency Elevate as its exclusive partner for ticketing, hospitality, and sponsorship sales.
HRL is the latest seasonal horse racing competition to be launched with major investment in the US in recent months.
For example, the Premier Jumping League, the new global showjumping competition, has sold its first franchise ahead of its launch next year, with US investor and race car driver Jason McCarthy acquiring a team for $50 million.
Earlier in 2026, a report published by Spotlight Sports Group (SSG) suggested that the lack of a unified global calendar means that race organizers often fail to capitalize on interest surrounding major events such as the Cheltenham Festival or the Melbourne Cup throughout the year.
Speaking to GlobalData Sport (Sportcal), SSG B2B managing director Sam Houlding suggested: “We've got to gain really good cut-through from racing as a product. Making sure that we tell really strong, simple narratives across the sport, ideally to end up in more of a season narrative.
“People understand things like league formats, knockout competitions, and qualifiers. Racing is a series of one-off events. It has some well-attended and well-viewed global festivals, but once that's done, we move on to the next one. So I think there's a lot of opportunity there.”
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