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This is not the sequel to the 2008 smash with Michael Sheen but the story that has been doing the rounds for a year has now appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times.
It’s ridiculous that this has been ongoing for over 12 months. And all the BHA can say is that there will be a hearing in the near future.
I’ve no doubt there are plenty of disagreements in the weighing room but this is alleged to have been going on over a period of time and not an isolated incident. If true some of the comments are completely unacceptable. Surely there would have been witnesses.
Yet again a case of racing shooting itself in the foot and making headlines for the wrong reason.
I agree that if this is true then it is totally unacceptable. That said , I also think that “trying” him in public is also totally unacceptable. It would have been far better to keep this under wraps and let due process be followed. As I understand it a number of jockeys have already been spoken to , including some of the senior ones.
I understand what you say Coggy about not trying Dunne in public but the BHA have brought this about by taking so long. I understand there’s legal ramifications but I’m sure both jockeys would have wanted this wrapped up long ago.
It’s a disciplinary process not a criminal case.
As always everyone wants to know what’s happening and what the allegations are and it’s taken a newspaper to bring it all out.
BHA, taking FA stance bang it on the back boiler, few years down the line release report, Nothing to see here.
Watching the videos of the races mentioned I do not know what Dunne is going on about. Frost does nothing wrong and if anyone gets cut up in the Stratford race it’s Istimraar who gets jumped across twice by Dunne’s horse to the point where the jockey gets sick of it and switches outside.
Wisecracker tends to go a little left in the Southwell race pretty much on takeoff (when it’s too late and indeed dangerous for the jockey to try to correct…if you start dragging on one rein as the horse is about to take off you’ll only unbalance it) and Bryony corrects the direction of travel just after he lands each time. Dunne follows along behind and slightly to her inside, presumably observing this left jumping tendency unless he is registered blind, then tries to move up closer onto her horse’s left flank just as they’re coming to a fence…either a complete lack of situational awareness or a deliberate attempt to prove some weird point. His horse got killed and he externalised the blame onto her.
In fact he should have already been aware of Wisecracker’s slight left jumping tendency if he had watched its previous race video, which I assume jockeys do for each of their horse’s rivals in a race to “know their enemy”. If you watch that video (Fontwell race) Bryony’s horse eventually gets completely mullered by another one jumping right across it and unseating her- I bet she didn’t march into the weighing room and threaten to put the jockey through a wing next time.
Anyway, good on her for speaking up. It’s about time this “whatever toxic horribleness happens in the weighing room stays in the weighing room, smile as you swallow the **** sandwich and pretend everything is camaraderie and roses” nonsense ends.
Dunne comes across as a right prick. Wonder if he would have spoken to Kieron Fallon (yes, I know Fallon was a flat jockey, but its just an example) in the same fashion in the same circumstances. Doubtful, as Fallon would have left him picking up his teeth. Agree with GAG, fair play to Frost for calling this nonsense out.
BUY THE SUN
“Wonder if he would have spoken to Kieron Fallon…in the same fashion in the same circumstances.”
Or any other male jockey, for that matter. It looks like a case of thinking he can bully a girl. And also looks like an average male jockey who cannot deal with a girl being a better and more successful jockey than him.
The report in the Racing Post says: “…. the BHA investigators outline in the report how “there is a cultural issue in which threatening behaviour is condoned and not reported in the weighing room.”” This seems to imply that the physically hardy and brave jockeys are shy and scared jockeys when it comes to speaking out about bullying. Surely not … perhaps … maybe … time to toughen up and speak up.
What a mess. The BHA has now referred itself to the Information Commissioner over the leak to the Sunday Times.
The one area where I do have some sympathy with the BHA is that this type of thing is incredibly difficult to investigate when other parties who have witnessed things are not willing to speak up. Regardless of the outcome of this case, if the BHA are finding that attitudes in the weighing room are not very evolved, then they urgently need to develop some strategies to tackle this.
Agree that it’s hard to deal with such incidents where the victim refuses to speak out. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case in this incident. Regardless, on the basis of this and Dettori’s bullying of Hollie Doyle alone, as Marlingford suggests, it would seem that some diversity work is required
Is it not a bit strange the article is published before the findings are fully formed?
Maybe the BHA needed a push on this but thought the piece gave little bar put some meat on the bones of what had been drip fed out previously.
The questioning of the other jockeys who might have been in or around the incidents at time of occurring, referenced at the end of the piece, was a bit toothless as a result.The report was leaked to the Sunday Times. It’s being published now because there appeared to be no end in sight to the BHA disciplinary process.
The article also states that the BHA have decided that Dunne has a case to answer.
Can imagine the reluctance of people to talk until the reports fully published. The lack of any real comment from other people in the weighing room came across quite badly I thought, I guess thats on them however.
Let’s not forget that weighing room culture isn’t any better, if you look across the Channel.
Pierre-Charles Boudot has been suspended for a further six months by France Galop after his indictment over an allegation of rape. This news is 2-3 months old, but the investigation isn’t over yet.
Though I have the feeling that French Authorities tend to inform the public a bit more.Brough Scott for The Sunday Times 17 January 2021:
There is a feeling among respected and non-misogynist fellow riders that Frost has a tendency to take other people’s ground. That has not helped with her popularity among her peers.
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David Walsh for The Sunday Times 17 October 2021:(Bryony Frost describing events following the Southwell race in which Cillian’s Well died)…After threatening me, Robbie walked off. It was at that stage when I felt I had had enough. I couldn’t take his bullying and threats any longer. I asked, ‘Robbie, what’s your problem?’ And he responded aggressively, ‘My problem is you murder f***ing everyone and I promise you the next time we ride against each other I am going to hurt you.’ The valets would have heard this, everyone in the weighing room would have heard. I became very worried for my safety.
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The BHA’s investigators, Watts and Nathan Taylor, interviewed many jockeys including Tom Scudamore, Nico de Boinville, Gavin Sheehan, Sean Quinlan, Richie McLernon and Paul O’Brien, as well as the valets Graham Piper, Mark Sinfield and Lewis Piper. From inside the weighing room, the consensus view was that the ill-feeling and hostility between Frost and Dunne was not out of the ordinary.The valets characterised the row that took place at Southwell as “bickering” while some of the jockeys felt that the altercation after Cillian Well’s fatal fall was not unusual. De Boinville said that what took place should be seen in the context of what happened in the race.
Dunne was asked how things had been with Frost since she’d made her complaint.
“Not great,” he replied.
“What makes you say that?”
“Cos it’s not the done thing.”
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It seems Robbie Dunne speaks for others. I hear the sound of circling wagons.On the taking of ground issue referenced by Brough Scott, it’s a mystery to me how respected and non-misogynist jockeys have formed a diametrically opposite view to that of racecourse stewards everywhere. Frost’s riding record is almost clean if I’m not mistaken. She’s had 1216 rides over 5 years with, I think, one misdemeanour for interference a couple of years ago.
Irrespective of the outcome of the BHA investigation I fear Bryony will lose out. Weighing room culture being what it is, ‘it’s not the done thing’ to raise a complaint with racing’s ruling body, and a culture and an attitude that have been nurtured over 200 years of jumps racing won’t be changed any time soon.
Frost now seems to have badly alienated at least some of her fellow riders, and the atmosphere in the weighing room may be far icier from now on than it has been hitherto.
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