wishing & hoping for frodon to enjoy a long and happy retirement.

​I have on my desk, in need of being replaced by an up-to-date edition, is a copy of 2018 ‘Horses In Training’. So many good, bad and ugly things have happened to horse racing in this country since 2018 but a constant source of pride and joy has been Frodon. There he is listed as a 6-year-old in Paul Nicholl’s squad for the 2018 season and also on the list is Pacha Du Polder, by then an 11-year-old, the horse that first brought Miss Bryony Frost, as she was then, to prominence when winning the Foxhunters at the Cheltenham Festival. 
I stand to be corrected but of the 156 horses listed under Paul Nicholl’s name in 2018, Frodon, Dolos, Enrilo and Greanateen are the only ones to still be stabled at Ditcheat in 2024, though a good many are still racing for other trainers.
It is to be doubted when Frodon first arrived from France that Paul Nicholls’ had great expectations of him and I would put a tenner on Nicholl’s not believing he would still be living at Ditcheat all these years later. He arrived not as a six-year-old but two-years earlier, so he has lived and earned his keep at Ditcheat for going-on 9-years.
He cannot, as much as I have grown to love him – I nearly voted for him in the Racing Post’s dubious ‘Greatest Racehorses Poll, deciding in the end to go with my first love, Spanish Steps – to be regarded in the same breath as Kauto Star, Denman, Big Bucks or several other true greats of National Hunt racing who raced under the Paul Nicholls’ banner. He ploughed his own furrow, though, shining bright during a slow period in the career of his maestro trainer. Kauto and Denman in particular were always destined for top honours and though they won handicaps, they were always a grade or two above the rank and file. Frodon came from a lesser parish. He toiled in handicaps from the start, working his way through the grades until he was winning December Gold Cups and other top-level middle-distance handicaps. That, I am sure, is where Paul Nicholls’ thought his rise through the ranks would end. Of course, Frodon never doubted his own ability.
He retires with 19-victories, which for the modern era is remarkable. His win in the Ryanair remains my favourite of his big race successes, though in the record books it will be eclipsed by his King George success when he had his better-rated stable-mates Clan Des Obeaux and Cyrname toiling in his wake. His third Grade 1 was achieved at Down Royal when his exuberant jumping didn’t win the day and he had to rely on courage and determination not to be headed.
John Francome named him the best jumper of a fence he had ever seen and I can’t remember, at least with Bryony, him ever making a mistake of any kind. I have said that anyone of the belief that racing people make horses race against their will should be placed in front of a film of Frodon running in any of the 50-odd races he competed in and point to evidence for their belief. He loved racing and most of all he loved jumping fences, hence when they took out half the fences in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree, as Bryony said, he became confused and disinterested.
It will not be lost on Bryony that Frodon is the last of horses in the yard that we all considered were her mounts, horses that Harry Cobden had no rights to. Present Man was her ride, so was Secret Investor and Yala Enki, and it must be remembered she won a Tingle Creek on Greanateen. I hope she keeps the ride on Il Ridoto after her performance at Cheltenham recently on him and for the benefit of the sport I hope other horses emerge to help keep her name in the spotlight.
My hope for 2024, and will be on-going for the years ahead, is that Frodon out-lives me and enjoys a happy and useful life, continuing to bring joy to Bryony’s life and to the lives of her family.