Meet 24-year-old Tanner Reisman and 31-year-old Timothy Schmidt, the youthful brains behind a new company called Next Gen Thoroughbreds, whose goal is to introduce horse racing to a younger generation via tools like a weekly podcast and social media network. Their passion is to not just create new racing fans, but to open the eyes of young people to potential career opportunities in the industry — and ensure a future for the sport they love.
The two were at Colonial Downs August 9 for the Arlington Million and entire “Festival of Racing” card, to experience the New Kent track first hand and compile fresh content for their weekly podcast and website.
“Its a crazy story how this all got started and how quickly it is developing,” said Reisman, who is a full time yearling groom at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky but travels to tracks on weekends as part of Next Gen’s mission. “Six months ago I had no idea we’d be here doing something like this and supporting the industry in the way that we are supporting it. We aspire to inspire the next generation of thoroughbred workers and fans and everything beyond and in between that.”
Interestingly, neither Reisman or Schmidt grew up in the business. “We attended a seminar in April that featured Jason Werth and other well known personalities and how they came up in the industry,” said Schmidt. “Someone asked about how to get the younger generation interested in horse racing and if we don’t, the industry is going to disappear. We got in our car afterwards, brainstormed ways on how we could be part of that process and thought a weekly podcast geared toward a younger demographic might be a good start. Here we are just a few months later and the podcast is our foundation and we are branching out beyond that. We have our first merchandise drop in the next few weeks and now have a photography section on our website. We travel track to track, take photos and capture moments in the winners circle, the horses and people involved in every aspect of the industry.”
Reisman stays busy at his main job and is currently helping prep 53 yearlings for the fall sales. “It’s a grind but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than Claiborne and Next Gen,” he said. “It’s a great to experience the hands on work it takes to raise these horses then to go to the track to see them perform. Those full circle moments are what it’s all about. It really brings everything together and it’s beautiful to see. We try to capture these moments and showcase them. Most people don’t understand or get to see the amount of hard work goes into horse development.”
“If people could connect with horses the way we have connected with horses, it would be easy to get new folks involved,” added Schmidt, who is working to obtain his real estate license, but was also a yearling groom at Claiborne and still helps out there. “Horses know what you’re feeling and how to make your life better. You see grooms in the backside working day in and day out to make sure horses are fed and well kept. Everybody knows about the three Triple Crown races, but that kind of hard work is daily life. From the outside looking in, people don’t see that part.”
Despite only being around for a handful of months, Next Gen is getting a lot of support from the industry. Stable Recovery has just signed on as their first sponsor. They also established a relationship with First Rodeo Racing, a modern horse racing partnership where 90% of the partners are under 30 years of age according to Reisman. “We love to help each other out and promote each other on social media. First Rodeo flew a kid out from Arizona to Saratoga, brought him to the backside of the track and showed him everything about racing from that perspective. Afterwards, the kid said, ‘I have to be in this sport. I’m so far outside of it now and didn’t realize how many layers there are. From what I saw today, this is something I’d really like to get into’. It’s a heartwarming feeling to hear these kind of stories. It’s not just about winning races. There’s so much more to it.”
Reisman and Schmidt’s early body of work can be seen at nextgenthoroughbredpodcast.com — and they have ambitious goals moving forward. “Inspiring and connecting with people” is how Reisman summed it up. “There is so much more to do and so many more people to connect with.”