Racing Digital Hub: A New "Journey" of Excitement—Minus the Fun

Come 2025, British horseracing is embarking on yet another "exciting journey" with the launch of the Racing Digital (RD) Hub, replacing the old Racing Admin system. If you believe the BHA’s breathless PR campaign, this revolutionary new platform will transform how owners, trainers, and staff interact with the sport, making everything from race entries to VAT returns "streamlined" and "more efficient." It’s all very exciting—at least on paper.

But amid all the buzzwords and promises of a new digital future, one can’t help but notice that a crucial part of the excitement is missing—the kind that comes from the actual racing. It seems the BHA has managed to inject the same dreary administrative grind into this "exciting journey" as they have into many aspects of the sport lately. Who knew that a day at the races would now come with an extra layer of data entry and financial oversight to make things that bit more thrilling?

The RD Hub is supposed to replace the clunky, outdated Racing Admin site, or NRAS, which most owners and trainers have come to grudgingly accept as part of the job. Sure, it’s slow and prone to glitches, but it works well enough to handle the basics. Now, the BHA and Weatherbys have decided it’s time for an upgrade—a new system that’s set to "revolutionize" the way we interact with British horseracing, using phrases like "intelligent use of data" and "agile programming" to paper over the fact that it’s basically a glorified data entry portal.

And this, of course, is where the "excitement" kicks in. Owners and trainers are being invited to join this digital journey, where they can look forward to logging into the RD Hub and spending their time doing all the admin work themselves. Entries, ownership registration, stable employee management—all things that have traditionally fallen on the shoulders of owners and trainers will now be done on a brand-new platform. Sounds thrilling, right? All this excitement for the same, if not higher, fees!

That’s the real kicker. The fees haven’t changed, even though it’s the owners and trainers doing the majority of the data input. The BHA talks about improving efficiency and using digital tools to make the sport run more smoothly, but where’s the benefit for the people who are actually making those entries and declarations? It’s like being invited on an exciting journey where you not only have to bring your own luggage but also drive the bus—and then pay a premium for the pleasure.

For example, owners are expected to be the first group to experience this "exciting" new world, starting with services like registering horses, managing sponsorships, and dealing with VAT returns. Apparently, the BHA thinks the real thrill of owning a racehorse is navigating a maze of digital forms. Nothing says excitement quite like battling with an online system to ensure your ownership status is correctly registered.

Later, trainers will join the excitement when race entries and declarations move to the RD Hub, alongside licensing and horse naming. It’s all part of the BHA’s grand vision to make administration as fun as, well, an audit. Of course, all of this will be phased in slowly, because, as the BHA repeatedly tells us, they’re "taking their time to get it right." Translation: prepare for several months of confusion as you hop between the old Racing Admin system and the RD Hub, trying to remember which one handles which task. All while continuing to pay the same inflated fees.

The irony of it all is that this "exciting journey" is designed to make the back-office work easier and faster, but the BHA still expects owners and trainers to bear the costs. The RD Hub may save the governing body and Weatherbys a ton of paperwork, but don’t expect those savings to trickle down to the people actually doing the work. The fees for entering a race or managing ownerships remain stubbornly high, despite the fact that the administrative burden is increasingly falling on the shoulders of those who already bear the brunt of the sport’s costs.

Meanwhile, the excitement that should come from the actual sport—fast horses, big wins, the thrill of the track—seems to have been drained away by the endless layers of bureaucracy. The RD Hub promises to make racing’s data more "intelligent," but it’s unlikely to make anyone feel more connected to the sport. It’s just another system demanding your time and money while offering very little in return.

In the end, the Racing Digital Hub might well improve the efficiency of the sport’s administration, but the real question is whether it’ll improve the experience for the people who keep the industry alive. Because for all the talk of this "exciting journey," it looks like owners and trainers are being asked to do more for less. And if that’s the future of British horseracing, it’s hard to get too excited about it.