Irish jockey Robbie Dunne receives lengthy ban for harassing female rider Bryony Frost

Irish jockey Robbie Dunne has been banned for 18 months for bullying and harassing female rider Bryony Frost in a disciplinary case that has highlighted the “coercive” weighing-room culture in UK horse racing.

Dunne was found in breach on four counts of conduct prejudicial to horse racing by an independent three-person disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), which looked into evidence of his behaviour towards Frost.

Dunne was charged with seven breaches in total. The other three, of violent and threatening behaviour, are yet to be considered. Three months of his 18-month ban are suspended.

The majority of the incidents took place in 2020, when Dunne was found by the panel to have used threatening and misogynistic language towards English rider Frost.

The panel found Dunne guilty of distasteful targeting and deliberate harassment on and off the course, and ruled that there had been “occasional cases of dangerous bullying”.

The BHA said they welcomed the panel’s findings and added that the punishment reflected the seriousness of the case.

Brian Barker, who chaired the panel, said of Dunne: “A course of deliberate conduct over a significant period of time has been revealed.

“This has progressed from distasteful targeting to deliberate harassment on and off the course and onwards to occasional cases of dangerous bullying.”

Barker said Frost had broken the “code” of the weighing room by taking her complaint to authorities, “knowing that her isolation - and rejection by some - was inevitable.”

Barker described the abusive language used towards Frost as “totally unacceptable”.

He also had a “real concern that the weighing-room culture is deep-rooted and coercive and that in itself is not conducive to the