Dunne to fight ban over Frost feud
⮞jockey faces BHA panel over allegations of abuse and threats of three-year riding punishment if guilty verdict
⮞t⮞reat
Robbie Dunne, the jump jockey accused of bullying and harassment by Bryony Frost, will fight to avoid a potential three-year ban when he appears before a disciplinary panel next week.
Several days of evidence are expected as the rider is accused by the British Horseracing Authority of conduct prejudicial to the good reputation of racing and acting in a violent or improper manner.
The hearing begins next Tuesday, with five more days set aside if necessary, into the apparent feud with the most successful British woman jump jockey.
Frost had first alluded to the fall-out following her biggest win to date, on Frodon, in last year’s King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, by which time her complaint to the BHA was already being investigated.
Dunne, 36, has known about the charges, which carry a maximum three-year suspension should he be found guilty, since April.
The BHA’S head of integrity, Chris Watts, who has subsequently left the organisation, had compiled a dossier of claims that Dunne’s behaviour on the days in question involved “verbally abusing and threatening a fellow jockey”. The governing body has also said he is in breach of both Rule (J)19 and J(20), which covers “acting in a violent or improper manner”.
Dunne is expected to be at next week’s hearing in person but it is unclear yet whether Frost, as a witness, will be attending in person or via remote link. Media attendance is limited to Zoom.
Though there has been bad blood between the jockeys going back to when Frost was a conditional rider, under Rule (J)19 (conduct prejudicial to horseracing) the BHA has focused on three days’ racing in particular; by “verbally abusing and threatening a fellow licensed jockey” at Stratford Racecourse on
July 8,
2020, at
Uttoxeter on Aug 17, 2020, and at Southwell on Sept 3, 2020.
The same three days feature in his charge under Rule (J) 20 (a person must not act in a violent or improper manner).
The hearing will be held at the BHA headquarters in High Holborn, with the panel comprising Brian Barker QC, James O’mahony and Alison Royston.
The penalty for a breach of conduct prejudicial to the good reputation of racing has an entry point of a £2,000 fine or suspension of three months, although the range is between £1,000 and £15,000 or one month to three years’ suspension. For violent or improper conduct, the entry point for a jockey is a four-day suspension. The range is anything between one and 21 days.
Dunne, who has missed a chunk of the season through injury, denied the allegations when questioned for the BHA report. Neither jockey has commented publicly on either the leaked report or the charges. Following the leak, the BHA reported itself to the Information Commissioner in the belief it may have come from its own integrity department. Since then the culture of the weighing room, where there remains a certain amount of selfpolicing when it comes to what is perceived as dangerous riding on the track, has come under the microscope and been the subject of intense scrutiny.