Robbie Dunne has had his 18-month suspension for bullying and harassing fellow jockey Bryony Frost reduced to 10 months on appeal and will be back in saddle in October.
The National Hunt jockey had been banned from racing for 18 months — with three suspended — for a sustained campaign of abusive behaviour towards the female jockey, following a British Horseracing Authority disciplinary hearing in December.
The male rider contested the decision and despite a BHA appeals panel describing his behaviour as ‘reprehensible and disgraceful’, his ban was reduced.
Anthony Boswood QC, the panel chairman, said they believed the original punishment gave ‘insufficient credit for items of mitigation’ such as an attempted apology following a verbal exchange with the female jockey at Stratford in July 2020.
In addition, the panel concluded that Dunne’s behaviour constituted one breach of rule J19, which covers conduct prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of racing, for a series of incidents, which took place between February 13, 2020 and September 3, 2020.
The original hearing found Dunne was in breach of that rule on four separate occasions. As a result, Mr Boswood said the panel concluded that the penalty imposed in December was ‘severe’. As the jump jockey’s suspension began on September 10, 2021, it will now end on October 9, 2022.
Robbie Dunne (left) has had his ban from racing reduced on appeal to 10 months
Dunne, racing at Newbury in January, faced multiple charges under BHA rules
Mr Boswood said: ‘We wish to make it clear that Mr Dunne’s behaviour, we think, was reprehensible and disgraceful and any jockey behaving like that in future must expect serious punishment.
‘However angry you are, you cannot use certain language. It’s not an excuse.
‘We think [the original punishment] was severe given the number of rides Mr Dunne will have lost to date and will lose in the future at this late stage in his career.
‘We also think that it may be that the disciplinary panel gave insufficient credit for items of mitigation such as his attempted apology to Bryony Frost after the Stratford race, and his willingness to participate in a ‘banging of heads together’ at Kempton that was facilitated by the jockey Richard Johnson after conversations with Bryony Frost’s father.
‘We have decided to reduce the period of suspension to 10 months, the consequence of which is the suspension will end on October 9, 2022. We simply apply a period of 10 months.’
The BHA alleged Robbie Dunne, winning at Taunton in December (above), threatened to put Frost through a fence during at row at Southwell racecourse on September 3, last year
One of the most serious allegations against Dunne, and the one which led to Frost making a complaint, was that the make rider threatened to put his rival jockey ‘through a wing’ — the side of a fence — after a race at Southwell on September 3 last year in which his horse was killed.
Dunne said in the original hearing that this comment was a ‘figure of speech’ but the panel ruled in December that they considered it ‘a promise to cause real harm’.
On other occasions, it was claimed Dunne used misogynistic language towards Frost, including caller her a ‘f****** whore’, a ‘f****** slag’ and a ‘dangerous c***’. Frost also accused Dunne of ‘opening his towel up and shaking himself’ in front of her in the men’s changing room.
At the first hearing Frost described how she felt the abuse intensified after she had stood up to Dunne in the weighing room. The hearing, and the outcome, divided racing, putting the weighing room culture into sharp focus.
Following the hearing, Brian Barker, the panel’s chair, expressed ‘real concern’ over a ‘deep-rooted and coercive’ weighing-room culture ‘not conducive to the good health and the development of modern-day race-riding’.
