Robbie Dunne to face hearing over Bryony Frost bullying allegations
The British Horseracing Authority said on Monday that the long-awaited hearing of a disciplinary case against the jockey Robbie Dunne, who is the subject of a complaint of bullying by his fellow rider Bryony Frost, will begin on 30 November, with five more days set aside for the case if necessary.
Dunne will face a series of charges at next week’s hearing, several of which fall within the scope of Rule (J)19, covering conduct prejudicial to horse racing.
In addition to an overall charge that he engaged in “bullying and harassing a fellow licensed jockey between 13 February 2020 and 3 September 2020”, further charges relate to alleged incidents at Stratford on 8 July 2020, Uttoxeter on 17 August 2020 and Southwell on 3 September 2020.
The BHA’s case is that Dunne’s behaviour on the days in question involved “verbally abusing and threatening a fellow jockey”, and was a breach of both Rule (J)19 and J(20), which covers “acting in a violent or improper manner”.
The existence of a possible disciplinary case involving Frost first became apparent after her success on Frodon in the Grade One King George VI Chase at Kempton on 26 December 2020, the highlight of the Christmas programme.
It was then reported in February that the complaint was against Dunne, and involved a race at Southwell last September in which Dunne’s mount, Cillian’s Well, suffered a fatal fall.
Extensive details of the case were then revealed when a 120-page report, compiled by BHA investigators looking into Frost’s complaint, was leaked to the Sunday Timeslast month. This included an alleged threat by Dunne to “hurt” Frost during a race, which followed an earlier threat to “put [Frost] through a wing [of a fence]”.
The report also suggested investigators had struggled to obtain evidence from other jockeys, and that “there is a cultural issue [in the weighing room] in which threatening behaviour is condoned and not reported”.
Dunne denied the allegations against him when interviewed by the investigators and neither rider has made any comment since the report was leaked last month.