ANYONE following the story surrounding Bryony Frost must have noticed one thing – a distinct lack of facts.
Predictably, an absence of details hasn’t stopped the all-too familiar feeding frenzy on social media, where there is only ever black and white rather than the more realistic grey areas of life.
Either, those quicker to judge than Robbie Rinder are more informed than the rest of us or, more likely, they can’t be bothered to wait to find out what’s been going in the weighing rooms of the country’s jumps tracks before forcing their views on cyberspace. It’s a social media kangaroo court Skippy and his chums would be proud of.
What we do know is that a BHA investigation is under way with Frost admitting there were ongoing issues that needed to be sorted out.
Quite what the issues are is unclear to all but those whose business takes them into the inner sanctum of the jockeys’ quarters.
There have been hints and innuendo – mainly in substantial newspaper interviews some would view as ill-timed – but nothing that would allow those of us in the dark about the actual details of the problems to make a reasonable judgement whether there was a case to answer.
Had this been an Old Bailey trial rather than a BHA investigation, such articles with the main witness would clearly prejudice proceedings.
While there’s not ‘twelve good men (as well as women) and true’ sitting in this instance, the general public is, in effect, the jury where the reputations of those involved is concerned.
Of course, interest in 25-year-old Frost was always going to be heightened after her superb frontrunning ride on old ally Frodon in the King George VI Chase.
In the aftermath of that win – the first by a female jockey in Kempton’s annual Boxing Day cracker – the revelations came seeping out that all was not well between Frost and some of her colleagues.
It was only natural that those whose views spring from their computer keyboards would leap to the defence of racing’s golden girl.
Frost has been winning friends quicker than races since she burst on to the jump racing scene as a fresh-faced amateur four or five years ago.
Her enchanting post-race chatter and perma-smile rapidly won over the public and her army of supporters on social media were always going to be on side when it was revealed there was trouble at mill.
The other jockeys implicated haven’t had the benefit of such positive PR. They are on the back foot before what’s been going on becomes public knowledge.
It could be that someone has merely called Frost a ‘west country rotter’. Alternatively she may have been followed home and had her windows rattled in a sinister fashion in the dead of night. We just don’t know.
The truth, obviously, is likely to be somewhere in the middle, that grey area that doesn’t exist when opinions are being chucked about on the internet, but until we know exactly what has happened it’s irrational to make any judgement either way.
Jump racing is the toughest of sports and disagreements between those who risk life and limb in the pursuit of glory are unavoidable.
Few professional sports has opposition competitors sat shoulder-to-shoulder in its changing rooms. Raised voices and harsh words are an inevitable result and, most likely, occur far more regularly than most outside the confines of the jockeys’ room realise.
Even in this age of heightened equality that doesn’t mean that disagreements are sexist or bullying or anything else that clearly is unacceptable in any work place.
It is for the BHA investigators to discover the facts, how the problems can be resolved and whether any punishment is appropriate.
For the rest of us, now matter how tempting it is to take to social media to tap away our own personal verdicts, it would be much better for all concerned to reserve opinions until the full facts are known.
The social media warriors have already scored one ridiculous victory in recent days.
The Twitter mafia, those professional offence takers who feign outrage at every opportunity, managed to force jockey Adam Wedge into an apology.
His crime? To brush off concerns of two bone-crunching falls by saying “it’s a man’s game” in a TV interview moments after passing the winning line on Secret Reprieve in the Welsh National.
Cue faux outrage. It was a cheap shot to jump on a jockey who had been through a fair bit on the day and clearly had a cocktail of emotion and adrenaline still pumping through his bruised body.
But social media is often all about cheap point scoring and taking anonymous pot shots at people the moral guardians have deemed to have stepped out of line.
Here was a jockey, not a professional broadcaster, but a battered sportsman uttering an oft-used phrase to explain how he was able to twice pick himself out of the Chepstow mud to ride a racehorse for more than three-and-three-quarter miles over 23 fences to victory.
And those who scream ‘sexist’ from behind their keyboards not only ignored any context they also, in their desperation to achieve the victory of an apology, missed a valid explanation.
Another regularly used phrase is ‘men against boys’. It’s entirely possible that what Wedge said could easily have it’s origins in explaining how something was so tough it was only for the grown-ups.
That, whether it’s male or female, is undeniable where racing is concerned. But, of course, there aren’t many grown-ups knocking about on social media these days.
Yes, I get the irony that most people will have stumbled on my words from that same direction, but while the internet has changed all our lives unquestionably and social media can be used as a real force for good, those changes have not always been for the better.
