Well before the verdict arrived in the British Horseracing Association’s case alleging bullying and harassment of Bryony Frost by her fellow jockey Robbie Dunne, the battle lines were already being drawn for the aftermath. These clearly placed many – and conceivably the overwhelming majority – of Frost’s weighing-room colleagues on one side, with the full support of retired champions including Richard Johnson, who gave evidence in Dunne’s defence, and Tony McCoy. McCoy issued a tweet in support of weighing-room valets on Tuesday, shortly after it emerged that three valets who also gave evidence had refused to work for Frost at Fontwell that afternoon. His colleagues on ITV Racing, Alice Plunkett and (former jockey) Luke Harvey had already pre-judged the decision on the channel’s Opening Show programme by repeatedly insisting it had “nothing to do with sexism”. The full extent of the fury – or perhaps, more accurately, the denial – within the weighing room became apparent only on Thursday, however, when the Professional Jockeys Association responded to the panel’s finding that all charges against Dunne had been proved, and that a weighing-room culture of self-policing disputes “is deep-rooted and coercive, and in itself not conducive to the good health and development of modern-day race-riding.” The PJA’s statement was as wilfully incendiary as it was sullenly defensive. The BHA’s independent disciplinary panel had just found one of the PJA’s members guilty of a shameful seven-month campaign of bullying, harassment and intimidation against another of its members. This had included vile mental and physical abuse and, perhaps most disgracefully of all, “dangerous bullying” during races, with the potential to cause serious injury or worse, not only to Frost, but other horses and riders in those races. Those riders are PJA members too. And yet the PJA’s statement acknowledged only that Frost had “felt bullied” by Dunne, not that she had been bullied, as the panel decided. Regardless of the possibility of an appeal, at best this showed an astonishing lack of awareness of how its choice of words would be perceived. And that was just the start. The jockeys’ union states that it “does not accept” the panel’s findings “in relation to the culture within and collective behaviour of the jump jockeys weighing room. It is a grossly inaccurate and wholly unfair representation of the weighing-room and a conclusion we believe is at odds with the evidence presented.” The panel itself – which is independent of the BHA – is accused of bias, with a claim that it has a “long and striking track record” of “failure ever to criticise the BHA, its case management and its processes”. And the PJA is “appalled” that Louis Weston, the BHA’s representative, characterised the weighing room as “rancid” during the proceedings. This, remember, is Bryony Frost’s union too, and its statement could scarcely illustrate more clearly the mood and atmosphere that awaits Frost, the brave whistleblower who stood up to a vicious bully, when she returns to work at Doncaster on Friday. There is no doubt that the weighing room, and the jumps weighing room in particular, is a unique working environment. Danger is ever-present every time a rider heads out to the track, falls and injuries are commonplace. Deaths and life-changing injuries are rare, but also occasionally inevitable when riding half-tonne horses at speed over jumps. But its uniqueness does not put it above the law of the land, and as Brian Barker, the panel’s chair, said on Thursday, Dunne’s behaviour “would not be tolerated in any other walk of life or workplace”. There were desperately unfortunate procedural issues in the case, including several leaks of statements taken during the BHA’s investigation which added to the pressure on all concerned. But these did not detract from the panel’s ability to reach a fair, impartial decision on the basis of the evidence which was presented to them, and while several current and former riders offered support for Dunne’s version of events, it seems telling that, in addition to Frost’s “truthful, careful and compelling” testimony, it was the evidence of relative outsiders that weighed more heavily with the panel. Two riders who were close by when Dunne launched a long tirade of foul abuse at Frost after a race at Stratford in July gave witness statements to say that they heard “nothing out of the ordinary”. A fence attendant who was a little further away, however, was adamant, and very convincingly so, that he had heard something that was very much out of the ordinary. It was, he said, furious, aggressive and misogynistic language, and he added that, had he known of any “history” between the two riders, he would have reported the incident immediately. With the exception of Frost’s evidence, meanwhile, the most memorable and compelling statement from a witness was probably the response of Hannah Welch, a former amateur rider, when it was put to her that Dunne did not recall seeing her in tears after another of his post-race rebukes. Staring straight into the lens, she said: “That … is … incredible”, revealing the extent to which the scars of that moment, which she says led in part to her leaving the sport, remain raw. For the British Horseracing Authority, the task now is to make good on its statement, welcoming the panel’s decision, that it “sends a clear message that conduct of this nature cannot be tolerated in any working environment within our sport”. Its statement adds that “progress is being made on improving the facilities that our athletes use, in particular our female participants” – another issue that the PJA insists it has been raising for years – while “the sport will soon be putting in place a collaborative, cross-industry Code of Conduct”. How swiftly any of this can be put in place while the jockeys themselves are in a state of denial remains to be seen, however. Racing is a centuries-old sport that has survived and thrived in an ever-changing world by adapting to upheavals and changing attitudes in the society which supports it. Another adaptation, to embrace modern ideas of how a safe, and safeguarded, working environment should be, cannot come soon enough.