The turf | 1 February 2018

If there hasn’t yet been a hurricane called Bryony there should be. The impact of Bryony Frost, just 22, this jumping season has been quite extraordinary. Since turning professional last summer, the 5lb claiming conditional has won six races on Black Corton, including the Kauto Star Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, making her only the second girl after Lizzie Kelly to win a Grade One. She won Wincanton’s Badger Ales Chase on Present Man, she won Warwick’s Racing Post Chase on Milansbar. Last Saturday I went to Cheltenham hoping for a quiet chat. Some hope. Yet again Bryony dominated the day’s ITV coverage. Despite a bout of flu during the week, fixed by father Jimmy’s mixture of mashed bananas, ice cream and golden syrup, she won the Crest Nicholson Handicap Chase on Frodon, a feat rivalled only by Lizzie’s victory in the Cleeve Hurdle on Agrapart.

But it isn’t just about winning. Bryony has engaged the racing audience. She enjoys every minute of what she is doing and already she is cheered on by strangers like a champion jockey. ‘You’re the little girl from Devon and suddenly they’re all getting behind you.’ Each time the TV microphone is thrust at her after a win, she rolls her eyes in supposed wonder that it has happened again. She grins with uninhibited pleasure at winning but every time points at the horse, seeking to give him the credit. Her natural, instinctive descriptions of the race turn her mounts into recognisable characters. ‘Black Corton was the underdog, now he’s the big gun.’ Milansbar was ‘a polite, big, long-striding type. He’s a warhorse.’ There is no trace of cockiness, but you sense the confidence of someone truly grounded in the racing world.