THE RACING POST ARCHIVE: BACK ISSUE NEWSPAPERS

THE RACING POST ARCHIVE: BACK ISSUE NEWSPAPERS

History of the Racing Post

By the time Racing Post was first published in 1986, its chief rival and the UK’s main sporting newspaper, Sporting Life, had already been in publication for over a century. The paper was published every weekday until 1995 when horse races began taking place on Sundays. If races were to take place, a special Sunday edition would be published. The paper later became a daily, and is currently Britain’s only daily sports paper.

Racing Post was founded by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed is, in addition to being a business and real estate developer, an avid equestrian. He owns the largest horse breeding group in the world, competed in races in his youth, has several family members who are winning competitors, and owns horses that have won major titles. One of Sheikh Mohammed’s junior wives, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, served eight years as President of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports. After her term ended, in 2015 the United Arab Emirates was suspended from equestrian competition due to controversial allegations of horse doping and abuse.

In 1998, the Mirror Group purchased the license for the Racing Post from Sheikh Mohammed. They paid £1 for the license, but Sheikh Mohammed requested that they also pay £10 million to four equestrian charities.

Trinity Mirror/Mirror Group also purchased Racing Post’s rival Sporting Life in 1998 with the intention of merging the two publications, then relaunching as a combined newspaper. The relaunch never took place due to mismanagement of the merger, and Sporting Life was soon sold. Racing Post continued publication in print, and racingpost.com was later launched.

In 2007 Trinity Mirror placed Racing Post up for sale as part of its efforts to reduce their sports media holdings. Irish investment firm FL Partners purchased Racing Post for £170 million. Sheikh Mohammed maintains ownership of the name, which he licenses to FL Partners.

Racing Post was criticized by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office in 2014 for failing to adequately protect racingpost.com’s members. A hacker breached security systems and accessed member’s names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and passwords.

Archival viewing of Racing Post is limited. Any story that appeared on racingpost.com is available by searching dates and keywords. According to the website, articles that appeared in the print copy are available to paying members, however, the site also states that this is limited to only issues from January 2006 to the present.

How to search the Racing Post newspapers archive

  1. Visit the archive page
  2. Choose your date and view available newspapers
  3. Choose from a range of presentation options
  4. Add a personalized message if it's a gift
  5. Complete your purchage