''Racing Post'' is a British daily
horse racing,
greyhound racing and
sports betting
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
which is published in print and digital formats. It is printed in
tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60,629 copies.
History
Launched on 15 April 1987, the ''Racing Post'' is a daily national print and digital publisher specializing
British horseracing industry and horse racing,
greyhound racing and
sports betting
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...
. The paper was founded by
UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
(United Arab Emirates) Prime Minister and
Sheikh of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai. ...
, a racehorse owner, and edited by Graham Rock, who was replaced by Michael Harris in 1988. In 1998, Sheikh Mohammed sold the license for the paper to
Trinity Mirror, owners of ''
The Sporting Life'', for £1; Sheikh Mohammed still retains ownership of the paper's name, and Trinity Mirror donated £10 million to four horseracing charities as a condition of the transfer.
In 2007,
Trinity Mirror sold the paper for £170m to FL Partners, who appointed former editor Alan Byrne as editor-in-chief and chief executive. The paper launched its website, racingpost.co.uk, in 1997. After the paper's sale to FL Partners the site was relaunched as racingpost.com in 2008. The business was sold to Exponent Private Equity in September 2016, with Richard Segal being appointed chairman.
Alan Byrne edited the paper from 1993 to 2002. He was succeeded by Chris Smith, who was then replaced by Bruce Millington in 2007. Millington was editor between 2007 and 2018. In December 2018, Tom Kerr was named as the new editor of the ''Racing Post'' and Group Racing Director, replacing Bruce Millington. The former horserace writer of the year previously worked as a senior writer for ''Racing Post'' and had been with the business for nine years.
''Racing Post'' employs approximately 300 permanent staff and expanded in 2018 by acquiring a majority stake in the leading sports betting website and app business, Apsley, as well as the acquisition of Leeds-based ICS Media Group, a content provider and
digital marketing
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development d ...
agency.
In March 2020 the Racing Post announced it would suspend publication of its print edition in response to the halting of British and Irish horseracing because of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Printing of the publication returned in June 2020.
Content and features
The ''Racing Post'' newspaper blends breaking news in the horseracing and betting industries with tipping content, race previews and reports, columns and features. In addition to daily editorials, the newspaper includes cards and form for each day's racing as well as entries and results. The greyhound section previews upcoming racing in addition to offering cards, form and results, and the sports section offers tipping across an extensive range of sports worldwide, as well as specials like politics or TV competitions and reality shows.
The mobile app (IOS and Android) includes cards, form, results and expert tips.
RacingPost.com features both free and premium (paid for) content. Sections include news, cards, results, tipping, bloodstock, sports, raceday live. statistics and shop. Race replays (access to a UK and Irish racing archive) and a digital newspaper are available to subscribers.
Accolades
''Racing Post'' was highly commended for the Grand Prix award at the Newsawards 2016. The judges commented: "This was a tremendous example of adapting the business model in an increasingly online world. The Racing Post's multi-platform offering of print, app and pocket guides was evidence that the Racing Post had grabbed the digital revenue streams by the horns and made a huge success through diversifying. It has used its spin-off products and partnerships to extend its reach".
At the 2013 British Media Awards, the mobile app was named Digital Product of the Year and the iPad Daily Edition was named the Launch of the Year. At the 2013 Newspaper Awards, the iPad app was named Newspaper App of the Year, and the mobile app was named Digital Innovation of the Year.
Alastair Down won the specialist writer category at the
Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) Awards in 2016. Edward Whitaker has won the SJA Sports Photographer of the Year on two occasions, in 2008 and 2011. Steve Palmer has won the SJA Sports Betting Writer of the Year on two occasions, in 2008 and 2009.
Edward Whitaker has also won Photographer of the Year at Horserace Writers and Photographers Association Derby Awards on a record-breaking eight occasions, while Alastair Down has taken home the Racing Writer of the Year award a record five times.
Lee Mottershead won Racing Writer of the Year in 2011, while Tom Kerr took the award in 2016.
A number of other ''Racing Post'' journalists have taken prizes at the Horserace Writers and Photographers Association Derby Awards, including Patrick McCann (Picture of the Year, 2015) and Bill Barber (Racing Reporter of the Year, 2018).
Specialist coverage
Weekender
The weekly betting newspaper is released every Wednesday. It is designed to look at the best bets for British and Irish racing for the week ahead, with a particular focus on the biggest betting races of the weekend. Regular tipsters/contributors include Tom Segal (Pricewise) and Paul Kealy.
RPSunday
The weekly feature is in every Sunday edition. It contains:
*The Big Read – an exclusive in-depth interview with a key industry figure
*Q+A with another notable individual
*Story of the horse looks back over the careers of popular horses
*On Location goes behind the scenes of various racecourses, stables and other racing-related places.
*Sports Crossword featuring horse racing and general sport
Racing & Football Outlook
The weekly betting newspaper looks at the best bets for the action in both
football and racing.
Racing Post TV
The audiovisual arm of the ''Racing Post'' provides a range of videos and Podcasts for racing fans. It has its own
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
feed and a Racing Post
YouTube channel
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...
which features tipsters and video forms.
Racing Post B2B
Racing Post B2B provides products and services to third parties in the UK, Ireland and internationally. The offering includes products for both digital and retail environments including horseracing, greyhound, football and other sports.
People
The publication's writers and columnists include:
*
Willie Mullins
William Peter Mullins (born 15 September 1956) is an Irish racehorse trainer and former jockey.
Career
He commenced racehorse training in 1988 having previously worked as an assistant to his father Paddy Mullins and Jim Bolger. Willie is a fo ...
*
Sam Twiston-Davies
Sam Twiston-Davies is a British National Hunt racing jockey. He was the retained jockey of ten-times British jump racing Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls. He won the 2015 Queen Mother Champion Chase on Dodging Bullets. His father is trainer Nig ...
* Tom Segal
*Paul Kealy
* Lee Mottershead
* Bruce Millington
*
Richard Hughes
* Richard Forristal
* Tom Kerr
* Julian Muscat
* Peter Thomas
*Kevin Pullein
*Alastair Down
SEO Team include:
Svetoslav Petkov* Sam Nixon
* Syed Shehzad
Chief Marketing Officer (CTO)
* Gethin Evans
References
External links
''Racing Post''''Racing Post'' Pictures''Soccerbase''''Racing Post B2B''
{{Authority control
Sports newspapers published in the United Kingdom
Horse racing mass media in the United Kingdom