Ed Grimshaw

Dear @BHAHorseracing,

You rushed to defend the fruit machine. Racing never needed it.
Shops: down a third, 9,000 to 5,825.
Levy: up, £65m to £108m.
Punters get restricted, closed, funds locked and an auto-email is all you get.

We ARE your customers. Who are you working for? #OpenLetter #HorseRacing #Budget2026 @Macbet1972 @AtTheRaces

cuttingcomment.com/dear-bha-were-…

Yesterday a trainer who admitted deliberately misleading the BHA with a doctored email was fined £2,000, with her licence ban suspended. Last month a champion trainer was fined £1,100 after his runner at the Cheltenham Festival had an undeclared prohibited substance in its body.

A stable employee who took £1,950 for inside information got two years out of the sport.

Who does the rulebook actually bite?

#BritishRacing #horseracing @PJAOfficial @RacingPost

A stable employee paid £1,950 for inside information: two years out of the sport. A trainer found to have misled the BHA over a £42,033 payment: a £6,000 fine.

Does the BHA penalise everyone equally, or does it depend on who you are? Are jockeys, trainers, and racecourses treated proportionately, or is there a hierarchy and underlying bias from the BHA in its governance of the sport?

#BritishRacing #horseracing @BHAHorseracing @RacehorseOwners @NTFnews @PJAOfficial

@RacingPost @MrTimeform @AKBets

The statutory levy was sold as money to cut gambling harm. Some groups are now reported to be considering a judicial review of how the prevention pot is being handed out. The prior question is whether anyone can show the spending works.

In April, OHID provisionally allocated £25.4m to 33 organisations. Its updated list last week shows £39.7m to 40, about £14m more, published after a period of legal challenges. No reason for the increase has been given.

One of the later awards is £2.7m to Gamban. It was excluded in April as a limited company and is now funded, reportedly as a social enterprise. OHID has not publicly explained what changed.

No full impact assessment was produced for the Gambling Levy Regulations 2025. OHID says it is still building the evidence base on what works in prevention. NICE found no economic evidence on interventions to improve access to gambling treatment.

Before the next fight over who gets the money, will OHID publish the scores, and the evidence that this spending reduces harm?

@OHID @GamRegGB @GambleWithLives @BetGameCouncil @SMFthinktank @HarryStewartMo1