Can betting back better care? The future of horse welfare in British racing
Baroness Minette Batters’ appointment as Chair of the Horse Welfare Board (HWB) has raised fresh questions about the future of horse welfare in British racing. She steps into the HWB role on 1 July 2025 after leading the National Farmers’ Union, where she championed rural resilience and built bridges across sectors.
As the current strategy period ends, the next phase’s judgment will be based on real-world delivery, not ambition. Will the sport back rhetoric with reform? Or will this be another reshuffle that leaves aftercare outpaced by performance? In a sport increasingly tied to betting markets, integrity is no longer just about outcomes. It’s also about aftercare. With betting markets and broadcast rights fuelling much of the sport’s growth, welfare oversight is increasingly a reputational asset, not a footnote.
In recent years, British racing has made high-profile gains in performance data, athlete profiling, and commercial reach. Yet the same innovations rarely reach the horses once they cross the finish line. British racing has stayed on track, but performance metrics alone won’t cover the gaps in care. Despite progress, aftercare has frequently depended on underfunded charities and short-term grants. This seems a fragile model for a billion-pound industry.
SiGMA News spoke to several key organisations about what Baroness Batters’ appointment could mean for racing’s long-standing pledge of lifetime responsibility. This article explores how funding, leadership, and transparency are shaping the road ahead for horse welfare in British racing.
Strategy, funding and the shift to accountability
In 2020, the HWB set out a five-priority plan aimed at unifying the industry: responsibility, safety, lifetime care, community, and transparency. As that chapter ends, what matters now is measurable action, not more mission statements. Stakeholders now expect tangible improvements in aftercare for racehorses and a clearer link between funding and outcomes.
Formed in 2019, the Horse Welfare Board responded to mounting industry pressure for coordinated oversight across equine welfare. Published in February 2020, A Life Well-Lived marked the HWB’s first serious attempt to define lifetime welfare during training, competition, and beyond. Barry Johnson, a former BHA Board member and veterinary surgeon, initially chaired the Board.
Delivery, in practice, has often lagged behind vision. Despite praise for the frameworks, public data on the number of directly benefited horses is scarce. For example, the current HWB strategy cites data transparency as a core pillar; however, progress on end-to-end traceability, especially in private rehoming cases, remains limited. Stakeholders are now calling not for new strategies but for visible proof that the existing ones have been effective.
According to a spokesperson at the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), the Board remains committed to supporting the HWB through its next phase.
“HBLB has supported HWB since inception and will continue to provide support in 2025/26. We anticipate that we will receive funding applications for new projects under the new phase. HBLB has been a major supporter of post-racing care through funding awarded to Retraining of Racehorses since 2000.”
That support includes substantial grants. In the most recent financial year (April 2024 – March 2025), HBLB told SiGMA News they awarded:
- £139,374 to the HWB Programme Board
- £302,000 to Equine Welfare Communications
- £300,000 to HorsePWR
- £126,000 to the RoR Education Programme
- £255,000 to the RoR Vulnerable Horse Scheme
- £2.3 million towards veterinary science and education projects
Yet funding alone is not enough. According to Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), the sport’s lead aftercare charity, predictability is key. In its response to SiGMA News, RoR welcomed the appointment of Baroness Batters and emphasised the need for multi-year investment.
“While we are grateful for recent support, much of it remains short-term in nature. We would value the HWB’s backing for multi-year investment, both from core industry contributions and through external grants, informed by a deep understanding of our operational model.”
RoR said one of their key challenges is that many grants are either annual or limited to a single initiative. This short-term structure limits their ability to scale retraining programmes, invest in infrastructure, or keep experienced staff. Multi-year funding would enable phased programme development, improved impact evaluation, and stronger partnerships with local aftercare providers. New affordability rules are redrawing the financial map, forcing a rethink of where welfare fits.
From traceability to trust
The transition to the next Horse Welfare Board strategy also brings a fresh focus on data, traceability, and education. As part of its 2024–2026 strategy, RoR is introducing a new digital system to improve horse traceability after they leave racing. They said,
“We are working closely with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to improve the post-racing data journey, including a new agreement that ensures information is transferred to us once a horse signs a non-racing agreement. This then triggers a survey to the owner to understand the horse’s whereabouts, future plans, and ideally, to encourage its registration with RoR.”
This system is due to go live in June 2025. But RoR are clear that data is only part of the story.
“Data alone is not enough. Owners must understand why it’s vital to respond to that initial survey and stay connected to RoR. This isn’t about surveillance. It’s about building the data needed to understand the true scale of racing’s aftercare responsibilities.”
Industry-wide traceability remains a challenge. While the BHA introduced compulsory non-racing agreements in 2021, there is still no centralised system tracking every thoroughbred’s full life cycle. RoR’s new platform aims to close that gap, but there are no public benchmarks yet for compliance rates, survey response levels, or retention of owner-horse contact. Without these, progress risks being anecdotal rather than measurable.
Some owners drift, others disappear, not out of malice, but out of habit. Throw in privacy nerves and no clear way to follow up, and you’ve got a system stitched with seams that don’t always hold. While RoR’s system aims to build trust, it still depends on voluntary compliance, highlighting the delicate balance between accountability and privacy in equine aftercare.
On the education front, The Jockey Club provided a detailed response to SiGMA News, highlighting how it is investing in both people and policy,
“Our Equine Welfare Strategy is about leaving no stone unturned. This led to us piloting an education project with Equi-Ed, which helped stable staff enhance their understanding of veterinary processes and long-term care. We’re now funding 100 places across Britain in 2025 to roll this out more widely.”
The Club also reiterated its view on the broader role of sport in building confidence,
“As with all elite sports and activities involving horses, there is an element of risk in racing, but the horseracing industry has a clear and moral responsibility for the welfare of the racehorse, one which we take extremely seriously.”
When horse welfare falls off the radar
Some voices stepped forward. Others stayed quiet. Entain and World Horse Welfare declined to comment. The Racing Foundation and BHA did not respond. We also contacted Baroness Batters’ office, but received no reply before publication. We issued broader requests across the sector, but responses remain uneven.
This lack of visibility is concerning to some in the sector. RoR explicitly referenced the need for collective responsibility,
“We’re not naive. Not everyone wants to engage with RoR. Some feel they don’t need support or are wary of being ‘tracked’. But it’s our shared responsibility, with HWB, to explain that this isn’t about surveillance. It’s about accountability.”
This silence isn’t just a gap in reporting. It reveals a deeper challenge in implementing truly collective responsibility for horse welfare in British racing. RoR admits some stakeholders “feel they don’t need support or are wary of being ‘tracked’.” Maybe it’s pride. Maybe it’s privacy. But there’s a stubborn thread here — stitched with mistrust, darned with habit, hemmed by a fear of anyone peering too closely. Until the industry acknowledges and addresses these concerns, possibly through clearer data safeguards or registration incentives, its accountability framework will remain patchy at best.
HBLB also noted the importance of cross-sector support,
“HBLB expects to continue to be a long-term contributor in this area, in conjunction with ongoing contributions from within the sport itself.”
The question now is whether that shared vision can be led by Baroness Batters. Her background in agriculture and advocacy suggests a focus on sustainability, but whether that will translate to stronger governance or merely consensus-building remains to be seen.
A vision for responsibility for horse welfare in British racing
If horse welfare in British racing is to evolve, it will require more than new leadership. It will require a step change in how responsibility is defined, measured, and upheld. Political change, especially threatened tax income, makes government support programs vulnerable.
RoR summed it up clearly,
“Success means knowing where every horse is, from birth to death, and ensuring they are supported throughout. It means owners have access to the right education and resources the moment they take on a former racehorse. And it means that when things go wrong, there is a clear route to help.”
The Jockey Club added, “There is an ongoing drive to improve data and traceability of all thoroughbreds before, during, and after their careers on the racetrack.”
Baroness Batters’ challenge is to turn ambition into architecture and build a governance model that lasts. Because, in the end, aftercare isn’t just an issue for charities or campaigns. It’s the ultimate test of the sport’s values and its future.
And here’s the real question: can betting back better care? It’s easy to cheer the start, celebrate the finish, and cash in the slip. But what about the bit after the noise? If betting wants to be proud of racing, not just profit from it, then care has to stretch far past the furlongs. Because horses don’t clock off when the odds settle.
