FROST V DUNNE.

​I find it very sad that a sport that in the main is conducted in a sporting manner should find itself hauled over the coals in The Sunday Times due to someone, allegedly, behaving in a most ungentlemanly way towards a female colleague. Also, the B.H.A. should take some responsibility for the slagging the sport is receiving over this matter as they have, for whatever reason, dragged their heels rather than dealing with Bryony Frost’s complaint in a speedy and efficient manner.
The Sunday Times article was as a result of a leak from within the B.H.A., so someone thought it was time the investigation was brought out into the open, especially as they had already sanctioned Robbie Dunne for ‘conduct prejudicial to the integrity or good reputation of the sport’, which makes one assume that he has a case to answer. Allegations of bullying and harassment could even lead to matters going higher than the B.H.A.
When this matter first came to light, which was last January, I thought Robbie Dunne condemned himself by reportedly saying to a journalist ‘that what goes on in the weighing room should stay in the weighing room’, a sentiment that several retired jockeys agreed with.
Reading between the lines, and what was reported in The Sunday Times, this whole sorry tale might have started as straight jealousy, if not some form of rejection. I have no personal knowledge of either of the combatants in this case. Bryony is more often in front of a camera, though less so since she made her allegations to the B.H.A., and because of that one feels one knows her more than we actually do. She comes across as honest, happy and in love with horses and being a jockey. She is the first to accept that she is incredibly fortunate to get put on good horses with obvious chances of winning important races and the last to suggest she is an exceptionally gifted rider, which she must be for Paul Nicholls to employ her as second jockey to his stable of stars. She is intelligent and a gift to the sport and to lose her in any way over this case will verge on a small tragedy. Remember the eloquence and passion after she won the Ryanair, a tour de force of affection and admiration for her mount that had Francesca Cumani in tears. Another example of Bryony’s unique personality.
She is a singular character. Perhaps a Marmite character. I don’t know. She seems to be very well-liked at Ditcheat and is very much family orientated. The images she uses to explain how she rides is so different from any jockey who has come before her. When she talks about listening to her mount’s breathing and heart-rate during a race it becomes abundantly clear that she possesses a natural affinity with horses. Bryony is Bryony, she is not a clone of anyone else. I doubt if nightclubs and all-night drinking sessions have ever figured in her life.
Why Robbie Dunne has a problem with her is for him, and him alone, to explain. If half the allegations made against him are true, he should be thoroughly ashamed of himself. If half the allegations are true, he deserves to lose his riders’ licence. Of course, he is a jockey coming towards the end of his career and, of course, he has never achieved the level of success that has come Frost’s way in the comparatively short time she has been riding.
What is highlighted by all of this, and something the senior jockeys in the weighing room must address between them, though an official code of conduct is in the offing, is that the tacit code of silence amongst jockeys must end. ‘What occurs in the weighing room should stay in the weighing room’ is many steps out-of-date. Modern society just does not allow a band of brothers to initiate their own rules, their own moral code.
Bryony Frost has demonstrated great bravery in going to the B.H.A. over what she believes is bullying and harassment. This is not only for her, I suggest, safeguarding her own personal liberty but in bringing this into the cold light of day she is most likely allowing protection for other female riders and younger, perhaps vulnerable, jockeys first entering the sanctity and mystery of the weighing room. She’ll be less liked over this and some jockeys may be antagonistic towards her, especially if Robbie Dunne loses his licence. Long-term, though, she may just have done the sport a great service and never again will a jockey be able to hide behind the obnoxious maxim ‘what goes on in the weighing room should stay in the weighing room’.