BHA Equine Anti-Doping Rules state that all horses born in Great Britain must be notified with the General Stud Book within 30 days of birth. If the horse is not notified within this timeframe, then it will not be eligible to race in Great Britain.

This process enables us to trace the whereabouts of foals before they enter training. By learning of new foals within 30 days of birth, we can readily identify new Thoroughbreds and improve traceability around the care that breeders and owners provide to Thoroughbreds at all stages of their lives.

Notification of birth can be completed by breeders and owners through our General Stud Book Online system. Foal notification can be completed at the same time as foal registration (which is a separate process) and is also done via General Stud Book Online, reducing the time required to process registrations. If notification is completed outside of the 30 day period, the foal will not be eligible to race in Britain until the BHA perform additional investigations.

To register a foal, the mare must first be registered as a broodmare. You can read about how that works on our mares page, and we also need a correct covering certificate, which can be done digitally.

Once your foal has been born, you can register your foal online. If you do not use the online registration service, you should receive a foal registration form to complete and return to us with the current fee and covering certificate before 31st July.

Once born, a foal should be DNA sampled and microchipped within four weeks. Sampling kits and microchips are sent directly to vets each year, so please contact your vet directly to make an appointment. The vet will complete the markings form, which is a legal requirement according to Equine Identification (England) Regulations 2018. A fillable pdf is available in the related documents section below.

The foal registration deadline is 31st July within the year of birth. Any applications received after this date will be charged at a higher rate. For full details on Foal Registration fees please see related documents below.

If you would like to register a horse outside its year of foaling, please email us or call +44 (0)1933 304808.  

For any questions or queries related to foals please contact us on studbook@weatherbys.co.uk.