FRANCESCA CUMANI had Mick Fitzgerald ‘lost for words’ with her brilliant question regarding the Bryony Frost vs Robbie Dunne bullying case.
ITV viewers praised the racing host for asking legendary jockey Fitzgerald to explain why there was so little support for Frost among her fellow riders.
Dunne, 36, has been banned from racing for 18 months after being found guilty on all charges of bullying 26-year-old Frost.
But the verdict reached by an independent panel last Thursday has sparked civil war in the sport.
One hot topic of debate has been the apparent wave of support for Dunne, with even the jockeys’ union at first saying they were sorry Frost ‘felt’ bullied.
This was later clarified, but even a GoFundMe page has been set up to support Dunne and, in a now-deleted video, jockey Alain Cawley said he ‘felt sorry’ for his banned rival.
Popular host Cumani picked up on this during ITV’s coverage of the racing last weekend.
And she asked former Grand National winner Fitzgerald, 51, why there were so few voices in support of Frost through her whole ordeal.
Cumani said: “Just to play devil’s advocate, what came out during the course of the investigation was that unsavoury and threatening language was used – a lot of jockeys said that was commonplace.
“The other thing for me is there weren’t too many voices standing up saying this harassment and bullying isn’t OK.
“I feel like that conclusion of [calling the weighing room] ‘rancid’ was reached – am I wrong?”
Fitzgerald replied: “You’re not wrong but there’s an awful lot of people in there who want to get the point across that’s now how everybody is.
“That’s not how it is in there on an everyday basis.”
Then Cumani hit back: “If there was supposedly a strong culture of support for each other, why was there so little support for Bryony?”
That stumped Fitzgerald, who said in return: “You will have to ask them. I haven’t been in that weighing room for 13 years.
“But I think that’s the disappointing thing for an awful lot of people looking at it from the outside.”
QUESTION EVERYONE’S ASKING
Viewers were quick to praise Cumani for addressing head on one of the key talking points in the aftermath of the panel’s verdict.
One said: “Francesca Cumani nailing it @francescacumani poor @mickfitzg was lost for words.”
Another wrote: “Take a bow @francescacumani.”
One Twitter user said replying to the clip: “Well said @francescacumani for asking the question we all want to know the answer too!”
Another commented: “Francesca was right on the money with this question. Surprised at Fitzie’s answer.”
MATT CHAPMAN: BULLYING ANYWHERE WRONG BUT SURELY NOT ALL IN WEIGHING ROOM ARE ‘RANCID’?
While a fellow Twitter user wrote: “Good question. Mick Fitz’s answer was telling.”
A panel found Dunne had subjected Frost to seven months of ‘totally unacceptable’ weighing room hell.
This involved threatening to ‘murder’ her – jockey talk for cutting someone up during a race.
Brian Barker, panel chair, said: “We have real concern the weighing room culture is deep rooted and coercive and is not conducive to the good health and development of race-riding.”
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