Bryony still smiling, and so is Jeremy
JEREMY KYlE, star of morning TV confessionals, declared his involvement in Cheltenham yesterday was . . . ‘after my children being born, the best day of my life’.
Revelling in the possibilities of horse ownership, he was hoping more than most that the poster-girl of Cheltenham 2018 could warm up a ladies Day on which a cold wind cut right through thick tweeds.
We are talking about Bryony Frost, who had been hurrahed in generous headlines all the way here, riding Kyle- owned Black Corton in the second race of the day, the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase.
Another person with an emotional stake in the outcome was as keen to ensure Frost did not succeed as Kyle was that she did — namely her boyfriend Harry Cobden, who was competing against her on Elegant Escape.
Frost, at 22, three years older than Cobden, has spent much of the past year beating the men. But yesterday, after starting strongly, Black Corton ran out of the necessary puff and finished fifth. Cobden came third, behind 5- 2 favourite Presenting Percy and Monalee in second.
So, as Cobden passed his girlfriend in the final throes, Frost was clearly not going to repeat the female-inspired joy of the previous day, when lizzie Kelly walked around with a bewildered smile after her maiden Festival win.
However, Frost’s demeanour afterwards was a credit to her, as she seemingly treated defeat as one of the two ‘ imposters’ Kipling described. She was polite and vivacious. She knew that victory was beyond her on the day.
And as for catching up with Harry for a chat, she spoke to Sportsmail before she had the opportunity to talk to him.
‘He gave me everything,’ said Frost, in her Devon burr, of her horse rather than Harry. ‘He showed all his ability and every last drop of courage and bravery. I cannot say that that today is a disappointment.
‘If a person, a cat, a dog, or a horse, gives you everything they have, you can only be proud of them.
‘I am delighted to be here at the heart of horse racing. But when you are out there, you do not hear the roar. You just hear the horse’s breathing. It was very testing out there in the heavy conditions.
‘And it made no odds that Harry was in the race. You don’t think about it when you are out there. You are wrapped up in your own world.’
But what of the hoopla as she has transformed herself in the past year from aspirant amateur to a hot- property professional? Eight times she has won on Black Corton alone, with her profile and expectations of her rising accordingly fast. Her Grade One win last Boxing Day caused a wider public to open their eyes to her talents.
‘People might see me differently because I am a girl, but that doesn’t matter,’ said Frost, winner of the Foxhunter Chase here last year and no full-time feminist.
‘I ride how I ride. It makes no difference if I am a boy or a girl.’
Frost has one more ride at the Festival, on Brelan D’As in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle tomorrow, and then wants a crack at the Grand National, won by her father, Jimmy, in 1989. ‘like every mountaineer wants to climb Everest, I want to get a ride in the National,’ she said.
Ruby Walsh’s awful injury in the same race was a reminder of how much courage, equine and human, there is to be respected in jump racing. In that light, the Everest reference was not entirely inappropriate.