BHA confirms 2026 industry fees

The BHA Board has agreed that both participant and racecourse fees will increase by 3.9% in 2026.

As always, we are sincerely grateful for the support of those who own, train, ride and look after our horses, and everyone who makes a continued contribution to the sport we all love, especially at a time where all businesses and individuals are feeling the effects of increased financial pressures.

Our thanks in particular to racehorse owners for everything you do to support our industry and the people and horses who depend on its success.

The BHA’s budget is set at a level that ensures we can fulfil our central responsibilities of governing, administering and regulating horseracing in Britain, and lead on the sport’s development and growth.

We do not exist to make a profit and therefore fees are agreed at a level that keeps costs as low as possible, while funding essential activity and services that the industry needs – and making sure we provide these to a high standard.

This is something participants and the public expect – whether that’s officiating on the racecourse and overseeing around 90,000 runners each year, processing licence applications, planning the racing calendar, safeguarding our people or managing highly complex integrity cases.

Our horses, their safety and wellbeing will always be at the centre of what we do, from funding essential veterinary expertise at every fixture to investing in new technology so that Britain continues to lead the way in the care and welfare of the Thoroughbred.

In recent years we have also accelerated vital work to make sure people across our industry feel safer, more supported and better able to fulfil their potential.

Alongside the day-to-day running and regulation of our sport, the BHA is responsible for leading industry-wide work into how we ensure British racing and breeding can prosper in the future.

This is about addressing some of our shared challenges, particularly around the sustainable funding of our sport – an area that’s fundamental to our government engagement work – and identifying how we can grow our industry and seize new commercial opportunities.

We are leading the industry strategy work and delivering the recommendations of the sport’s largest ever piece of consumer research, Project Beacon. This is critical to how we better understand our current and future fans so that we can grow our customer base, the revenue coming into our sport and the returns to participants. Central to this is continually improving the racehorse ownership experience and boosting prize money.

The BHA is also focused on incentivising the owning, breeding, training and racing of horses on our shores and protecting the natural environment on which our horses depend. We are acutely aware of the need to be at the forefront of digital technology, so that we are continually innovating what we do and how we do it.

The fees the BHA receives are essential to the areas of work set out above and to supporting industry efforts to secure a brighter future for our sport, our people and our horses.

Thank you again for your support for British racing and breeding – it really is massively appreciated.