Horse racing – Frost makes records with Grade One win at Cheltenham
(Reuters) – Bryony Frost shed tears of joy while becoming the first girl to journey as a top-stage Grade One Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Frodon within the Ryanair Chase on Thursday. Frost, 23, was cheered by a crowd of almost 70,000 after a nine-2 shot. Frodon’s front-strolling victory was secured with a period and 1 / 4 for 10-instances champion instructor Paul Nicholls. “He’s had his day. He’s Pegasus. He’s the maximum first-rate battler,” she stated of Frodon, a Cheltenham professional, who held off 33-1 outsider Asos and Road To Respect. “He traveled, my God, he jumped, and the instant he got overtaken out, most horses might have ended. He grabbed me utilizing the hands and said, do not you dare surrender. He’s incredible!” Nicholls, who has trained outstanding horses along with Kauto Star and Denman, called it “one of the excellent days ever.” A beaming Frost, who had a fall closing 12 months, which sidelined her for three months, punched the air after the maximum high-profile victory by using a female rider at the showpiece meeting. In an interview with Reuters this month, Frost said: “It’s The Festival and such a rare element to winning.
“If you look at the mountain’s pinnacle, it’s a long manner up; however, if you try step by step, you will preserve going up. “If you most effectively make it halfway, nicely, you’ve got nevertheless executed properly, and if you get to the top, handiest, then you can take it within the view.” Frost was a Festival-winning rider as an amateur inside the 2017 Foxhunter Chase on Nicholls-trained Pacha Du Polder. The Devon-born jockey had chalked up her first Grade One triumph inside the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton in December with Black Corton. Lizzie Kelly has become the first girl to trip a Grade One winner over fences on Tea For Two in the same race in 2015. Kelly also loved Thursday’s achievement by driving Siruh Du Lac to victory within the Grade Three handicap chase. Frost had ridden Frodon to 3 previous wins at Cheltenham on top of victory within the Old Roan Chase at Aintree this season.
