WARNING OF BOMBSHELL!

​No surprise that from Saturday  the cover price of the Racing Post will be going up, after all overheads for the Post always sky-rocket the week of the Cheltenham Festival. I am sure this is purely coincidental and not simply the most convenient time of the year for the Post to increase the cover price to pull in extra revenue. By how much the cover price is to rise may, as it did with me when I discovered the ‘bloody Nora’ and sharp intake of breath news, take the wind from your sails. From Monday, to get your essential daily fix of racing stories and form, the price of the Racing Post, Monday-to-Sunday, will be £3.20p, a humungous rise in my personal weekly cost of living of £2.10p, more than the cost of every other daily newspaper.
Look, I know the Racing Post is in financial dire straits; it has been for a long while. Yet at a time when they should be seeking new readers, when they will lose income from the gathering pace of Betting Shop closures, they put up the cost of racing’s only daily newspaper by a whopping 30p a day! And I thought when it went up to £2.90 this time last year, they were stretching the elastic is bit too tightly!
Is this hypocritical of them? They are seemingly supportive of the boycott of Arc racecourses because of the falling level of prize money on offer, yet have no compunction in increasing the financial pressure on trainers, jockeys and enthusiasts like myself, by adding (excuse my math) £97. 20p to their annual outgoings. Though I dare say the on-line charge for the Racing Post will remain unchanged.
No one loves the Post more than me. If for whatever reason I do not receive a copy of the paper my whole day, from breakfast to evening when I look-up the results on Cee-Fax (or is it Teletext?), is diminished. When it comes to racing, other papers do not hack it, though the Western Morning News, in variance to its London counterparts, have increased their coverage of the sport.
Once again, regrettably, the sport, and the Racing Post is very much an integral part of the sport, has acted as if racing is solely a rich man’s plaything, giving no thought to the working class at all. Horse Racing is very much a working-class sport underpinned by the wealthy of society. From stable staff, to racecourse workers to betting shop staff the wheels of this sport are greased by working-class men and women. For this sport to grow stronger, to have a rewarding future, it has to be grown from the bottom up. It is why the level 4,5 and 6 races at the all-weather tracks are so important. It is also important for the working man to be able to afford a copy of the newspaper that feeds the industry.
£3.20p for a daily newspaper is plain ridiculous. It is, very often, a good read. I have vowed to read the paper until my death. I would like a copy of the paper placed in my hand when I am dropped into my grave as The Racing Post is the very essence of my identity. But can anyone on a meagre income justify paying £3.20p for a daily paper? No, is the answer, by the way.
Already, once the Festival and Aintree are done and dusted, I have decided to forego the paper on a Saturday, the day it is the least value for money, and buy in its stead either the dull Racing Paper or the Western Morning News. At least for the duration of the flat season, anyway.