Every professional sport has its integrity challenged by doping and a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to combat it. But as times change, there is always a need to evolve and push for new methods to help preserve the sport. In early April 2025, the BHA announced that they were launching some new anti-doping measures.
Racehorses in Britain will now undergo testing for gene doping, after the BHA’s sinking of approximately £2 million into what is deemed to be a greatly-improved new method of detection. But what exactly is gene doping and what are the BHA’s plans for introducing the new testing?
A Level Playing Field
If you visit any platform from a top list of UK betting sites, you’ll find that, alongside football, horse racing markets are some of the most popular options available. That’s because the sport is still loved by people up and down the country, highlighted by the number of racegoers that attend not only the big events like the Dante and Ebor festivals at York but also support the day-to-day racing away from Grade 1 levels.
Trainers and jockeys want to know that they are competing on a level playing field. Racegoers also want to see fair contests, especially punters who have money riding on outcomes. It’s the responsibility of the BHA to provide that, which is why they have stepped up their fight against doping.
What Is Gene Doping?
The term gene doping is going to be a new one for a lot of people. It is essentially using technology to manipulate a horse’s gene, to modify it for things like the promotion of faster muscle growth and repair, or to genetically produce an increase in the production of red blood cells which could lead to improved performance.
This is something achieved with gene editing or by introducing new genetic material into an animal through a transfer process. Either way, genetically modified horses could have deliberate unfair advantages over other non-modified competitors introduced into them.
How It Differs
This is very different from what can be thought of as traditional doping methods. Those typically involve injecting a horse with performance-enhancing drugs, which are usually steroid-based. While ultimately the targeted results are the same, it’s a very crude method compared to gene doping.
Traditional doping methods are only temporary, and there’s no guarantee that a horse is going to receive it well. With gene doping, the improvement would be embedded within their biology, so the enhancement would be buried extremely deep within.
The key difference between the two methods is that traditional doping methods are easier to detect than any modification introduced at the genetic level.
Is It Happening?
Interestingly, the BHA backed research into gene doping and how to detect it hasn’t come as a reactionary measure, but as more of a preventive one. It sort of appears as a future-proofing countermeasure about a very real advantage that could be abused.
Potentially, gene alterations could become a common thing as technological advancements allow for revolutionary genetic modification techniques. The BHA was keen to state, however, that it had not found any evidence in British racing that genetic manipulation had been happening, but strengthened its stance by stating how great of a risk that it posed to horse racing.
A Step Forward
This is an innovative measure taken by the BHA, which shuts a potential door to a problem before it opens. Because gene manipulation would evade traditional drug testing methods, the BHA has shut the gate before the horse has bolted.
Not only is the new technology used to detect gene doping revolutionary and crucial to sustaining the integrity of the sport, but by getting a step ahead, it sends a very strong deterrent. Because robust detection methods have been developed, it should deter anyone from going down that path.
New Area, New Challenges
All of this could come with some potential downsides as well, none less than the cost of implementing the testing, which is going to be a lot more expensive than traditional drug testing methods. This could be a huge financial undertaking by the BHA and could lead to other complications.
There is always the potential that false positives and false negatives can appear, which is something that’s a common feature of any kind of biological testing. Racehorse owners could also have ethical concerns over the handling of genetic information and how it is used and stored.
There is also the constant battle against technological evolution. Even this groundbreaking new testing method will require constant reviews to ensure that it covers all angles and challenges of future developments that could be introduced.
