The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has unveiled new text message capabilities for its RaceWise anonymous reporting service, allowing individuals to alert the Authority of potential wrongdoings without revealing their identity or phone number.
“Honesty, integrity and the highest standards of horse and human welfare are fundamental to ensuring trust and confidence in British racing and breeding. RaceWise is already a highly effective system for raising integrity concerns, and has played a crucial part in gathering vital intelligence that has helped keep our sport safe, fair and clean,” BHA Director of Integrity John Burgess said.
“The expansion of the service to include text messaging has the potential to be a real game-changer: strengthening British racing’s anonymous reporting mechanisms and giving people added confidence to speak up for the sport they love.”
The anonymous service allows individuals to report potential wrongdoings in British horseracing directly to the BHA, such as possible integrity threats, the treatment and welfare of horses and humans and safeguarding and equality concerns.
RaceWise is offered in partnership with Real Response, which was originally founded by David Chadwick in March 2015.
Chadwick also spoke on the new capabilities, having said, “Protecting the integrity of sport depends on creating safe, trusted ways for people to speak up. We’re proud to partner with the (BHA) to strengthen RaceWise through secure, two-way messaging that removes barriers to reporting while preserving complete anonymity.
“When individuals know they can share concerns safely – and have a real conversation without revealing their identity – the quality of information improves, trust grows and the entire sport becomes stronger.”
The new two-way text messaging service will enable the BHA to ask and answer questions regarding potential concerns, as well as request additional evidence which can be used to enhance its investigative process.
“Not only does the WhatsApp and text service remove some of the barriers to reporting, it allows the BHA to exchange messages in real-time with the person raising the issue and secure vital supporting information, which it has not always been possible to do until now,” Burgess continued.
“This has huge potential for encouraging more people to come forward, improving the quality of the intelligence we receive and enhancing participant and public trust in the anonymous reporting process itself.”
The BHA will provide an updated suite of digital assets as part of the extended capabilities and send new posters to racecourses for display in public and restricted areas.
After some reflection, Jack Barton, the BHA Policy & Advocacy Manager, published a piece ruminating on how the recent Budget announcements may affect the horseracing industry in December 2025
