Robbie Dunne is found guilty of harassing and bullying top female rider Bryony Frost

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National Hunt jockey Robbie Dunne did harass, bully and threaten the country’s most successful female rider, Bryony Dunne, a British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel has concluded.

Dunne, 36, has been found guilty of four counts of conduct prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of horse racing in his treatment of Frost, 26, and banned from riding for 18 months, with three months suspended.

He was accused of abusing his rival allegedly calling her a ‘whore’, ‘slut’ and ‘c***’ at various races last year and threatening to ‘put her through a wing [fence]’ at Southwell.

The ruling, following a week-long hearing, has shaken National Hunt racing to its core since the case has shone a spotlight on incidents of ‘unacceptable’  misogyny and bullying, which went unchallenged by fellow jockeys, staff and stewards.

In a sport that prides itself on offering an even playing field for men and women to compete against each other, Frost’s testimony has lifted the lid on weighing room culture described as ‘rancid’ during the hearing.

A QC-led three-person independent panel was told during five days of evidence gathering that Dunne was a self-appointed enforcer of 1950s traditions among jockeys, who police each other’s behaviour in a dangerous sport.

Reporting their judgement, the panel chairman, Brian Barker QC, said: ‘Our conclusion, is a course of deliberate conduct over a significant period of time has been revealed.

‘This progressed from distasteful targeting through deliberate harassment and on and off the course and onwards to occasional cases of dangerous bullying.’

As well as threatening to put Frost ‘through a wing’, Dunne was also accused of threatening to cut up the female jockey on the course, something referred to as ‘murdering’ in jump racing. 

Mr Barker added: ‘We find the words used on September 3 [at Southwell] were a promise to cause real harm were over and above the usual ‘jockeymantra’ of ‘murdering’. ‘

Jockeys lined up to dispute Frost’s account of what was said when and cast doubt on her claims of bullying, but the panel has believed the evidence of the female rider.

The case against Dunne concerned three races last year – Uttoxeter, Stratford and Southwell – when he was accused of abusing Frost and threatening to hurt her.

He was accused of conduct prejudicial to the reputation of racing, including bullying and harassing Frost, between February 13, 2020 and September 3, 2020. 

However, Frost claimed these incidents were in fact a culmination of years of mocking and bullying because she had the temerity to stand up to Dunne’s alleged lewd behaviour. 

In evidence, the panel was told by the BHS’s legal counsel, who brought the case, that Dunne began to mock her after the pair had fallen out in the period 2017 to 2019. 

It was claimed that in the changing room, a space which is often shared by men and women at antiquated race courses, Dunne dropped his towel and ‘waggled himself in front’ of Frost, feigned sex acts and would make sexually charged remarks about ‘how he would give women jockeys a ride’. 

These claims were denied by Dunne and his barrister during the course of the hearing. 

The BHA’s barrister Louis Weston said that Dunne’s behaviour in the period that followed amounted to a ‘vendetta’. 

In announcing the panel’s decision today, Mr Barker added: ‘On the examination of Miss Frost’s evidence and demeanour we find her to be truthful careful and compelling and in taking her complaint to the authority she has broken the code knowing that isolation and rejection by some was inevitable.’

Dunne had claimed he was concerned about Frost’s riding, which he believed put others at risk. And the hearing was told that jockeys policed the riding standards of their colleagues within the weighing room.

At Southwell, last September, Dunne’s horse, Cillian’s Well, fell and died and he held Frost responsible. In the weighing room after the race he called her out, but Frost said that as a result she felt threatened and feared for her safety.

The panel acknowledged the circumstances of the confrontation between Dunne and Frost at Southwell, but Mr Barker added: ‘We are unable to accept Mr Dunne’s sweep of denials, criticism and his reason.’

Mr Barker described Dunne as ‘a man, who in the view of one of his own witnesses, was a ‘p*** taker’ and who regarded himself as one of the elders of the weighing room’.

The case will surely herald a root and branch review of National Hunt racing and Mr Barker appeared to pave the way for such action in his comments. He described the panel’s ‘concern’ that male and female jockeys, as well as valets (staff who help riders prepare for a race) did not speak out in support of Frost.

‘The tenor and type of excessive language that we find was used towards Miss Frost was totally unacceptable whatever the frustrations about her style and whatever the habits of the weighing room,’ said Mr Barker.

‘In reviewing the evidence given by jockeys of repute as well as by the valets… we have real concerns about… the ‘weighing room culture’ that it is deep rooted and coercive.’

The culture was ‘not conducive to the good health and the development’ of racing, he added. 

In his remarks, Mr Barker acknowledged that the sport is dangerous and there needs to trust and respect between jockeys, but he added that there was the need for a ‘workplace where men and women can compete with courage on equal terms’.

Mr Barker said standards seen ‘in other walks of life’ should apply in racing. 

Following the hearing Dunne apologised through his legal counsel, Roderick Moore.

Mr Moore told the panel: ‘[Mr Dunne] has asked me today to apologise on his behalf, where you have found he has fallen down.’

Dunne faced seven charges under British Horse Racing Authority regulations.

He was accused of breaching two rules in relation to each event at Uttoxeter, Stratford and Southwell.

Under rule J19, it is alleged he displayed ‘conduct prejudicial to’ the sport by ‘bullying and harassing’ a fellow jockey. He denied all four of these charges.

However, the panel concluded he had breached rule J19.

Dunne was also charged under rule J20. It was claimed he was ‘acting in a violent or improper manner’ by abusing another rider.  However, this was set aside since the panel found the more serious charges under J19 were proven.

The male jockey had accepted one charge at Southwell in relation to rule J20. Dunne admitted he said to Frost at Southwell, ‘I’ll put you through a wing’, but argued it was a commonly used phrase in racing and intended as a rebuke, not a threat of actual harm.

The range of punishment for breaking Rule 19, is a fine of between £1,000 and £15,000 and a ban from one month to three years.

Mr Barker said that in reaching the decision to ban Dunne for 18 months, with three suspended, the panel had considered various aggravating factors, including the length of time the abuse continued, its public and deliberate nature, the language used and an ‘attack’ on Frost’s personality ‘to justify your actions’ at the hearing.

In mitigation, Mr Barker said the panel was aware that Dunne had suffered bereavement around the time of some of the offences, the financial impact a ban will have upon him and he should not be made a ‘lightning rod’ for the existing weighing room culture.

‘We have firmly in mind that this conduct is prejudicial to horse racing,’ Mr Barker said. ‘You meant to instil fear and humiliation and you succeeded.

‘Actions were not appropriate in an equal terms sport or did they meet modern expectations of acceptable behaviour.’

No financial penalty was imposed. Dunne has seven days to appeal.