Rising star Bryony Frost targeting big Newbury prize with Present Man
Steve Jones speaks to plucky conditional jockey Bryony Frost about her meteoric rise up to national hunt success and discusses her chances with Present Man in Newbury's feature race this weekend, the Ladbrokes Trophy Chase.
MOST little girls want a new bike or the latest Disney DVD for their ninth birthday.
All Bryony Frost wanted was to ride on a racehorse. She’s barely been off one since.
Today the 22-year-old will attempt to unwrap a second big prize on Present Man in the Ladbrokes Trophy just three weeks after their Badger Ales Trophy success.
The 5lbs claimer is one of the rising stars of jump racing. Given her dad is trainer and ex-jockey Jimmy – winner of the Grand National and Champion Hurdle – it’s no surprise she’s followed him into the tough world of National Hunt racing.
It’s all she’s wanted to do for as long as she can remember.
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Frost told me: “When I was about five I went to dad wanting to ride out with him. He said ‘no way – they’re too big, they’re too strong’.
“I told him I was coming out with him when I was nine and he was like ‘yeah, yeah’ thinking I’d forget. I did not forget that promise.
“I can remember very strongly jumping on their bed at about 5.30am on my ninth birthday saying ‘come on, we’re going to be late - you promised me, we’re going to ride’.
“He put me on a lovely old horse called Arden Hills. He was massive and I had my pink number cloth and little saddle on.
“We went for a little hack in the woods - it was the best birthday present I’ve had.”
“He’s off a lovely weight and he should have enough pace to keep with the leaders. It’s very important to keep a position in these sort of races. When we turn in I hope that he’s got the gears I need him to have.
“He’s my partner and we’re going out to war, basically. If you don’t have confidence there’s no point sitting on him.”
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Growing up surrounded by ponies some might suggest she might have been born on a horse. It was, in fact, a donkey.
Frost revealed: “Dad had about 12 donkeys at Paignton – 50p to have a ride for a minute, or something like that.
“My donkey was called Nosey – he was my babysitter. Dad was probably too tight to get a proper babysitter so I got plonked on him and wasn’t allowed off. Where he went I went – I got booted out of the kitchen a couple of times.
“Mum said as soon as I could sit up I was on the donkey. I’d fall asleep but never fall off.
“I don’t know how mum didn’t have kittens when we were kids. I’d disappear at 7am and come back at 7pm – I’d have been out on my pony swimming in rivers, crossing ravines.
“My nickname used to be bog-riding Briony because I’m just a feral, outdoors girl.
“Racing is in our blood – it runs thick. It’s been my life – I know no different. I was pony racing at nine and I went through a lot of different disciplines, show jumping, hunting.
“It’s what we know – it’s as easy as handwriting. Well, sort of, I didn’t go to school too much.
“I live for my horse. I’m very lucky I’m doing something I love. I’m just a girl from Devon who rides horses. If people think that’s cool then great.”
The latest star of the saddle in the Frost family realises how lucky she is to get the coveted job as conditional jockey to Nicholls’ powerful Somerset stable.
The trainer – a good friend of her dad from their riding days - clearly thinks it has less to do with luck and more to do with talent and hard work.
He said: “She works hard and she rides well - some of those horses run really well for her.
“When Present Man won at Wincanton all she was interested in doing was getting back to work on time so none of the others would give her any stick.”
She clearly relishes being part of that team.
Frost, who won the Cheltenham Foxhunters for Nicholls on Pacha Du Polder last season, added: “Paul and his team are A1 at what they do. You can’t find anyone better. That’s why they’ve achieved what they have. Our job is the last little piece of the jigsaw.
“Paul has taken a big risk in me because of the whole girl situation.
“Luckily I’ve managed to get the results he needs. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“Girls have got to kick a lot harder. A lot of lads don’t make it but their mistakes aren’t seen.
“To me I don’t think about the boy-girl thing. I do what I do and if it’s good enough, it’s good enough.
“I’ve got two older brothers so I’ve been fighting them off ever since I was little – sticking my elbows out to get the last pork chop on the dinner table.”
It’s hard to imagine a young woman being more down to earth than Frost. But her winner at Exeter last weekend was a lot further down than she imagined.
It came in a race for giant Clydesdale horses in aid of the Devon Air Ambulance – a charity her eldest brother Daniel needed after breaking his back out hunting on Dartmoor.
Frost laughed: “They said to do a Frankie Dettori flying dismount. I did what we used to do as kids – stood on him and off I jumped.
“I got halfway down and thought ‘actually Bryony, this is a long way down, for god’s sake don’t injure yourself, you’ll get shot’.”
Getting legged up on Present Man and Black Corton today is going to seem easy by comparison.