Speaking exclusively to BOYLESPORTS, Bryony Frost – the only jockey to have won the King George VI Chase on the legendary Frodon – has given a revealing update on her new life in French jumps racing, a year after packing her car and crossing the Channel.
From emotional first winners in the family silks (including turning around the fortunes of her father’s mare Caitlin’s Court) to surpassing €1 million in prize money in her debut full season, Frost explains how the calmer French rhythm, better prize-money structure and the rock-solid backing of owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede (Double Green) have given her the fresh challenge she craved.
In this exclusive interview, she opens up on why the move felt exactly right, adapting to a different racing culture (and still battling the language!), topping the female jockey standings, and why despite now feeling part of the furniture in France she believes the best of both worlds is possible with occasional rides back home.
From Exeter to Fontainebleau: A Family Dream
Moving To French Racing
A lot of races and the wins are important, not necessarily because they’re top of the tree races, but because there’s something associated with them in your career, in your life. They all have their different sentimental meanings and what they meant to you at the time, even the smallest races, say around Taunton.
I rode Asian Spice for Dad [Jimmy Frost] to win at Exeter this time last year. It was a massive moment. I just rode my first winner for my Dad here in the family silks, in the Compagnie Les Arlequins Handicap Chase at Fontainebleau on a little horse called Caitlin's Court.
Bless her, I won one 0-100 race on her in England, but the rest of the time we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. I said to Dad, we can't make ends meet in England with her, she’s not paying her way. I said, let’s take the chance and bring her out to France, and I’ll see what I can do.
She jumps, and she loves the job. She's been here six months, and she's put €45,000 in our pockets, and she won £10,000 in four years in England. She won £27,000 in a big race at Fontainebleau on December 2.
It's fantastic. My emotions were the same, if not more than my Grade One’s at this point, because it's my Dad’s little mare, she's come out over, she's petite, but she's as strong as an ox in her will, and she loves her game. She keeps kicking home for you.
My first win in my family’s silks out here in my new life was pretty emotional. What a day. It was a pretty big moment because Dad trusted me, believed in me. We've done 12 months here now, and these sorts of moments are starting to happen.
Learning The France Language And Lifestyle
"My French Is Not Great!"
This is my first full season now. My French is not great. My understanding of the racecourse is pretty on it now, but my understanding of the French language is absolutely horrendous. I mean, I want to blame it on my dyslexia, but I can't really! I do need to put more effort into it. But it will come, slowly, slowly. I can understand more than I can speak, that's for sure.
The lifestyle is completely different to the UK. We're not racing every day. You do three days on, sort of three days off. It’s that sort of rota. We’re soon going down to Pau for two months. We race down there solidly, and we've just bought a log cabin! There'll be lots of time to go walking in the mountains. The racing schedule in France for the whole industry is much better because it gives time for life.
Because of that, you get to spend more time in the yard, you get to spend more time with your team, with your horses, and that is all a massive benefit. Don’t get me wrong, there's still a big challenge.
For me, it is like jumping from secondary school to college, or from primary school to secondary school. You go from what you were so comfortable with and everything you knew. Now I have no idea where I am or where everything is, and you're sort of learning on the job.
Backed in Bright Green: The Double Green Era Begins
The Double Greens
No doubt the support I have received from Isaac Souede and David Munir, the Double Greens. When I was heading over, they gave me the opportunity to be their French jockey and start really focusing on their team out here. I love this. I think one of my strengths is seeing my horse, feeling my horse and connecting with him and working out who he is and how he can be the best.
This is now really playing into all of those years of experience and knowledge I've taken from my family, my gran, my dad, my mum, my brothers, all of their knowledge is here. Even though I’m now 30, I am still like a sponge. I'm really enjoying that, especially with the young horses out here. I've become part of the team, part of the family. They have your back. That’s so important.
I’ve not always had that. You know they're not going to cut you loose. You're in the team and working with the young horses out here for the future is a privilege. It's just so exciting, the responsibility and the trust that they're putting into me is amazing. The winners are coming now, the system has changed, and we've tightened the belt, and the future is glistening a bright green for sure. I'm really excited for it.
Winning French Hearts My Way
What French Racing Can Learn From Britain
You can't be hopping here, and there and everywhere, that’s for sure! I was so naïve when I first came here. The public transport is different gravy. You can get on a TGV [train] and say I’m riding in Strasbourg, in three hours, I’m there. You can go there and back for €100 maximum - you couldn’t get two hours down the road in England for that. The riding fee is less, but you get paid for your transport, and then you get seven per cent all the way through the prize money from first to seventh.
For the last couple of years, it wasn’t easy for me. Now things are starting to go really well. But I keep my head down, keep working hard and in France, the prize money gives opportunity to owners, for example, who don't want to spend mega money on a horse, but you can go and get yourself a £10,000 horse, and he’ll win that for you in a month.
Job done, you know? It makes it fun; it makes it what it should be. France has the system right pretty much. One thing is, you don’t have physios, so the insurance has to be sorted out. That’s behind England.
The Challenge I Needed And Wanted
For me, the time was right to come to France. It was the challenge I needed and I wanted. I felt like the tide was turning, and it was time to turn with it. It's great. In my first season, I could not have asked for better. We are well over the £1million mark in prize money, and I am on 29 winners.
I'm in the top 20 in France now, I'm leading the way for the champion female in my first year, and I'm gunning hard for that title because I think it'd be cool. Big prize money won, big races won. I got my first graded race, a Grade 3 here and have packed in some Listed winners, so it’s really great.
Female Rider In France? No Different!
No, not really, it’s the same. It's a sport. You've got to hold your own space. People have to learn what they can and can't get away with. How do you ride? Learn that and then how they learn. It took me a minute. The starts are different, the riding lines are different, and the obstacles are all different as well. Pace sections can be different, but on the whole, at the end of the day what wins races is rhythm and jumping.
People need to find the confidence in you and the trust because you come over with a good CV, but they have to see it themselves in practice. It takes a minute. I had a few people who were trying to change me drastically to become more like a French jockey, but that was never going to happen. They ride more on top of the withers in France. English and Irish jockeys ride slightly behind the shoulder blade, whereas the French jockeys ride very much on top of the shoulder blade.
That is their strategy. At the end of the day, in my opinion, the main thing is being inconspicuous to your horse. You must fall into his rhythm and his body and his movement, and try to lessen your movement as much as possible and move with him. Water on water, it all moves together. That's how you have to feel your horse and listen to him. One criticism of me is that sometimes I respect my horse a little bit too much, but for his longevity, you always get the best result from that.
But that's who I am, that's me, and that's why you know I've been backed by Double Greens. People are starting to have confidence in me that I can get the job done. I've already fallen into the category of best front rider!
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