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I generally endorse your postings, Miss Woodford, but on this occasion I’d suggest it’s a generalisation about 68 million people with a wide range of views made by an individual (yourself) claiming to speak on behalf of the entire remainder of the planet.
I get where you’re coming from, though.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Only 1 booked ride tomorrow (Frodon) and 1 on Monday.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it does look like the weighing room has closed ranks against her, which is unfair.
On the other hand, has she just been fortunate to get on one good horse who raised her profile higher than her ability merited? As Ruby says, only 4 trainers have really supported her and I get the impression that one of those is not so keen on her now.
OK, I know she won the Tingle Creek as well. But it looks to me like Harry Cobden has nailed down his position as the Nicholls number one jockey this year and her chances of regularly riding a top horse for that trainer are now slim.
One of the very few advantages that racing has over other sports is that women and men compete as equals so any discussions about trans rights etc should be conducted in the Lounge. Discussions about how racing continues to discriminate are entirely valid here though. Sadly I fear that it reaches beyond the “weighing room culture”, disgraceful and damaging as this is. Ultimately owners have the final say over jockey bookings.
King has only offered her four rides this season and she is 5 from only 19 rides for Nicholls.
Let’s face it, she’s won a KG, a Tingle Creek, a Denman Chase, a Celebration Chase, the Irish Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal and so much more and is willing to ride at crap places like Fakenham (sorry for the insult!), why wouldn’t you like to have her on your horse? One ride the entire weekend!!!! Is this an organised boycott, or what?And while I’m writing, I’m not thinking one second about the Dunne case. It’s just about having one of the better jockeys available on your horse.
Frost is far from a jockey who got lucky due to a single horse. She’s ridden plenty of other big winners besides Frodon e.g. Greaneteen, Yala Enki, Present Man, Black Corton, Milansbar, Secret Investor and Pacha Du Polder.
I never got the impression Nicholls was overly happy about her being involved in the trial, and she seems to be getting very few opportunities now. Where it looks like the industry is giving her the cold shoulder, my inclination is to look for the simplest explanation i.e. that’s what’s happening.
I wonder what kind of environment she is operating in day-to-day. Is she ostracised in the weighing room now? Is there any camaraderie with the other jockeys? I really hope it is not the case that an explicit form of bullying has been replaced by a more subtle one.
Are you calling out another form of institutional racism
. You seem to be totally on fire tonight.Hardly institutional racism gamble!
I can’t believe at least one yard isn’t giving her a go , let’s say you have a small middling yard , here,s a chance to get a very good jockey on your horses , same with a owner , why wouldn’t you want her riding your horses
“I never got the impression Nicholls was overly happy about her being involved in the trial.”
I thought so as well. In fact, I reckoned Nicholls was getting a bit tired of the whole Bryony Frost circus even before Dunne’s disciplinary hearing.
I remember seeing the ITV Sarurday preview programme one morning around the time of the hearing. Megan Nicholls, someone you might have expected to be highly sympathetic to Frost, offered support that was lukewarm at best. Leonna Mayor and Hayley Turner on SSR did not exactly go out of their way to support her either.
“Is she ostracised in the weighing room now? Is there any camaraderie with the other jockeys? I really hope it is not the case that an explicit form of bullying has been replaced by a more subtle one.”
I think that is very likely and it has possibly affected her confidence. Greanateen is a case in point. She won the Tingle Creek on him (Cobden chose to ride something else) in the immediate aftermath of the hearing. I think the adrenaline rush in the outcome of the hearing actually helped her that day.
Two months later Bryony gave the same horse a poor ride at Leopardstown. Maybe the horse was not in the same form but she chose to ride on a different part of the track to all the other riders.
Was it likely that she knew Leopardstown better than the likes of Paul Townend and Davy Russell? As Ruby Walsh said afterwards, when in Rome you do what the Romans do. It struck me as someone who was either trying to be too clever by half or lacking in confidence.
Not long after she got a bad injury and – Frodon’s win at Wincanton aside – she has found it a struggle since.
However, I do agree that a few small to middling trainers should give her a chance. It looks like there would be no problem booking her and they would be getting the services of a Grade 1 winning rider.
Frankie Dettori rode Thierry Jarnet to sleep in the latter’s own backyard on Golden Horn.
I’d say Frost wasn’t scared to try a tactic and on this occasion it didn’t come off.
She’s not getting the rides her calibre merits any more – I find it sad, but not so sad I’m going to buy a horse and put her on it!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Genuinely no disrespect to her but Dettori is a better and more experienced jockey than Frost. And he had ridden around Longchamp plenty of times before, including winning the Arc a few times. Frost had hardly ridden at Leopardstown.
Possibly not one of my better comparisons, to be fair!
Right up there with the Sea Pigeon one that irked Alan!
I was just trying to offer a counter point – but it fell flat on its face!
Fair comment, CAS!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Even though she is up at Musselburgh for a ride for the stable in the first, Nicholls prefers to put the teenager Freddie Gingell on board Trucker’s Lodge in the Edinburgh National on Saturday.
Surely she’s the type for a race like that. Can we only conclude that Gingell is higher up the pecking order in the yard now?
Gingell can claim 7lbs. Maybe Nicholls thinks the horse is badly handicapped and a conditional on board gets him back on a winnable mark?
Freddie Gingell can claim 7lb in what is a 3m7f110yds Chase on Good to Soft and is a young rider with considerable steeplechase experience in Points.
Much though I rate Bryony Frost, I’d rather have Freddie Gingell claiming seven in this contest.
The BHA scale indicates 7lb is worth nearly ten lengths in a race of this distance.
Freddie Gingell was fourth on the horse in the Welsh National last time out and I’d say it was his claim that got the horse into the frame.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"She’s had fewer rides this winter, but I doubt if that’s unique. Small fields through October/November and two weeks lost to frost in January have reduced the opportunities for everybody.
Cobden isn’t even halfway to the number of rides he’s had in recent seasons – ditto Nico De Boinville. Are they being discriminated against?
As for the Leopardstown ride on Greanateen – a) the only chase he’s ever won going left handed was a three runner novice at Fakenham b) she was following advice from Master Mullins, I think it’s called pillow talk.
“Two months later Bryony gave the same horse a poor ride at Leopardstown. Maybe the horse was not in the same form but she chose to ride on a different part of the track to all the other riders.”
Nicholls’ horses were running like drains at the time and Greaneteen was walloped 50 lengths by horses rated lower than him. Nothing to do with the line she took.
I remember at one point where it was mentioned that a decision was made for her to pick and chose her rides rather than just try getting on as many rides as possible (including bad ones that may result in a higher chance of injury). This may still be the case but there are other factors that can limited outside jockeys from getting good spare rides.
The main problem is that the vast majority of top stables and the ones just below all have stable jockeys and a lot even have a second retained jockey and/or a conditional also attached to them so picking up decent spare rides is probably more difficult than it has ever been.
If I was looking for a jockey and all the usual top jockeys were claimed I would have no problem if she was given the ride…but there are a lot of other factors that may be in play (owners and/or trainers not wanting to use her, agent not pushing hard enough for rides etc).
Obviously coming back from injury and the mass abandonments have had a big impact on the number of rides she has had, but she is currently riding at a 13% win rate (10 from 74 rides) which having looked at her record over the last 5 seasons is only sligthly below where she is:
21/22 43 wins from 245 rides (18%)
20/21 47 wins from 318 rides (15%)
19/20 45 wins from 311 rides (14%)
18/19 50 wins from 307 rides (16%)
17/18 38 wins from 204 rides (19%)She has had 3 wins from 11 rides in the last 14 days – Paul Nicholls and Lucy Wadham are the main trainers she has ridden for but she has the odd one for Neil King but again getting spare rides is going to be hard especially when you have been off for so long….a case of out of sight out of mind.
What she will need is probably another marquee horse to get her back in the headlines as I think Frodon’s days of being her go to horse have passed.
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