Unheralded Frost foils McCoy Bargain-buy Rydon Pynes prevented Tony McCoy from moving to within one of the 4,000 winner mark in what proved an eventful Bathwick Tyres & Festival Racing Supports Racing 'National Hunt' Novices' Hurdle at Exeter. In a race in which loose horses wreaked havoc by swerving across the leaders at several flights, well-backed 7-1 shot Rydon Pynes engaged in a duel over the final quarter-mile with McCoy and 2-1 favourite Flemenson At the last and on the run-in a loose horse intimidated the winner and then Flemenson, with Rydon Pynes staying on best to score by a length for absent trainer Martin Hill and jockey Hadden Frost. McCoy had no excuses and said : "It made no difference. The winner was always holding me." Hill, who paid just £800 for Rydon Pynes at Ascot, was busy trying to uncover a similar bargain at Doncaster sales. Frost said: "I had to laugh when I was told someone tweeted saying the cameras were coming down to watch me ride my 121st winner. The loose horse was a nuisance. At first I thought he was going to wipe me out, but he ended up hampering AP." McCoy's mount in the following race, Keen Eye, never looked like taking a hand in the finish at any stage as Doctor Harper, backed to the exception of everything else in the race, proved different class to his rivals in the Bathwick Tyres Plymouth Novices' Hurdle.
