FROST OUT OF NATIONAL

BRYONY FROST is hoping to be back before the end of the season after it was confirmed she broke a collarbone in a fall at Southwell on Monday. The fracture means Frost, 23, will miss the Grand National on April 6 but it had looked like she was struggling to pick up a ride in the race her father Jimmy won on Little Polveir in 1989. Frost, who has ridden 49 winners this season, became the first female jockey to ride a Grade One winner over jumps at the Cheltenham Festival when successful on Frodon in the Ryanair Chase. Meanwhile, amateur jockey Declan Lavery has won his appeal against a 10-day ban imposed at Cheltenham for continuing to ride Jerrysback in the National Hunt Chase ‘contrary to the horse’s welfare’. The BHA suspension caused a storm of protest as Jerrysback finished third in the four-mile chase with 20-time champion jockey Sir Anthony McCoy saying the decision made him ‘embarrassed for the BHA’. Other critics suggested the BHA’s approach to welfare issues was too swayed by influences outside the sport.