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Bloodhorse.com
An Irish consortium is on the verge of acquiring the Racing Post newspaper, Britain’s only racing daily, from the current owners, Trinity Mirror Group.
Investment company Festina Lente Partners, led by Peter Crowley and Neil Hughes, is offering between £180 and £190 million for the newspaper, which saw off a new rival called The Sportsman in 2006.
Former Racing Post editor Alan Byrne is advising the Irish consortium, which consists mainly of property developers and is not connected to Coolmore.
The Racing Post was founded in 1986 by Sheikh Mohammed and he still holds rights to the title after selling the paper for £1 in 1998 to Trinity Mirror who then published the rival Sporting Life newspaper.
Trinity Mirror, which closed down its own paper and has since then published Racing Post, owns three national newspapers headed by the Daily Mirror and regional titles.
It made the decision to sell Racing Post at the end of last year following a strategy review and had reportedly put a price of £200 million on the specialist publication.
FL Partners, negotiating final details with Trinity Mirror over the proposed sale, appears to have gained the upper hand from other bidders, including one advised by Brough Scott, the current editorial director of Racing Post.
If this consortium is successful, is it safe to assume that A Byrne would be back as editor? How would a sale affect the RP website – full subscription service as its a monopoly?
Anything would be beter than, "lets sit on the fence Brough {i am holier than thou} Scott. The man is tedious, his colunms on the racing post would put even johnjoe to sleep, TRF’s original Victor Meldrew.
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