Bryony Frost all smiles after winning return to action

Bryony Frost made her return from injury a winning one, as she partnered Zikany to a 14-1 success in a Flat race at Goodwood on Sunday.

On her first ride for 212 days, she warmed up for the jumps season in booting home the Amanda Perrett-trained four-year-old to a three-quarters of a length victory over the fast-finishing Tralee Hills in the two-mile Wayne Tufnell Alderbook Handicap, a race for professional jump jockeys.

Frost, 27, had not ridden in Britain since fracturing a vertebra in her back in a fall from Thyme White at Aintree’s Grand National meeting on April 7.

“He’s a complete pro,” Frost told Racing TV after dismounting.

“Amanda and (jockeys’ agent) Sam Stronge said, ‘Do you want to ride him?’, so I took the opportunity and thought, ‘It is a great place to start and an amazing track to ride. He looks awesome to ride, so knows his job, so we’ll go out there’.

“It’s been a long time off track, but the buzz was there and I was actually thinking, when he travelled so strongly to the front, ‘Oh no, this will be it – I’ll hit the front and get swallowed on the line’, but luckily he kept me going all the way, head in front and a winner on the board.

“He is a really happy horse out there, fitness levels extreme, the step up in trip obviously he loves, and he was back on his winning mark. Everything was looking right for him.

“The track is so much fun to ride and to come off on a winner is absolutely awesome – I can’t thank the team enough for it.”