FROST IS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD... AGAIN

THE dust had just settled on Boxing Day at Kempton Park when the reality sank in for Bryony Frost hours after her success in the 2020 King George VI Chase on largely unconsiered 20-1 chance Frodon.

At the end of the Kempton card, Frost, whose victory that day made her the winning-most female jumps jockey in Britain, told Racing TV: ‘I had a good chat with Jamie Moore (fellow jumps jockey in the weighing room) a couple of races beforehand. A few things haven’t been the easiest and I had a chat and it made me feel like I wasn’t quite an outsider. That was mega for me at that point.’

It certainly hadn’t been easy. Between February and September in a year that Frost concluded by winning one of the most prestigious steeplechases in the world, she was being bullied and harassed by Robbie Dunne on a sustained basis.

An independent disciplinary panel banned Dunne for 18 months last week, three of which have been suspended and the rider has a few days left to decide whether to appeal.

The evidence was damning and the verdict was unequivocal. One that should be universally accepted.

Within an hour of the verdict, the Professional Jockeys Association, who wanted the matter dropped completely in October, released a statement that said the PJA ‘had great sympathy’ that ‘Bryony felt bullied’ and Dunne’s conduct ‘fell well short of the standard the PJA expects’.

Instead of being concerned, however, the PJA appear more perturbed by the BHA counsel Louis Weston’s description of weighing-room culture as ‘rancid and sour’.

Whether the weighing room is good, bad or indifferent feels inconsequential. Lost in all the ugly aftermath is the real victim. Bryony Frost. Forgotten again. Her feelings of isolation glossed over. Just like her comments after her career-defining victory on Boxing Day were.