For the better part of a century and a half, the ‘Sporting Life’, first published in 1859, was the principal sporting newspaper in Britain and, as such, its name became synonymous with horse racing. Indeed, as racing journalist Jamie Reid wrote in ‘The Guardian’, less than a year after the newspaper last appeared in printed form, for many people, including those with little or no interest in the sport of kings, ‘The Sporting Life was racing.’
Mirror Group Newspapers, which owned the ‘Sporting Life’, was acquired by Robert Maxwell in July, 1984 and, thereafter, the future of the newspaper became unclear. Martin Smethurst, who was a journalist on the ‘Sporting Life Weekender’ at the time, said, ‘…there appeared a danger that there would eventually be no daily racing paper.’
The advent of a rival, tabloid paper, the ‘Racing Post’, under the auspices of Sheikh Mohammed, Ruler of Dubai, in April, 1986, breathed new life into the ‘Sporting Life’, which retained its familiar appeal to its traditional readership, at least for a while. However, in December, 1997, Sheikh Mohammed sold the ‘Racing Post’ to Mirror Group Newspapers for £1, on condition that the two papers be merged to create the ‘Racing Post incorporating The Sporting Life’. Thus, the final edition of the ‘Sporting Life’ was printed on May 12, 1998 and, thereafter, the world’s oldest daily racing newspaper was no more.
Despite industry scepticism, Mirror Group promised to relaunch the’Sporting Life’, in print, later in 1998 but, the following March, reneged on that promise, in favour of an Internet venture. As Trinity Mirror (now Reach plc), Mirror Group Newspapers eventually sold the ‘Racing Post’ to Irish investment consortium Festina Lente for £170 million in October, 2007.