Danny Nikolic claims he has been the victim of a conspiracy
Controversial jockey Danny Nikolic claims he has been the victim of a conspiracy by corrupt Racing Victoria officials.
Nikolic has told a court RV integrity services head Dayle Brown and chief steward Terry Bailey are corrupt and have led a targeted campaign against him.
The Caulfield Cup-winning jockey said he has been treated very differently from other riders, including by RV investigator Tim Robinson.
“I believe there’s been a very well thought out position, Dayle Brown and Terry Bailey especially,” Nikolic told his appeal to regain his jockey licence.
“Because I’ve had words with Terry Bailey, I just find that in my opinion I get treated very differently to anybody else by those three in particular.”
Nikolic blamed Bailey or Brown for the decision to scratch the Lee Freedman-trained Kookaburras after the jockey was seen taking a mouthful from a can of beer at a 2010 race meeting.
“Even now I think someone has come over the top and made sure that that horse got scratched, obviously to stop me from riding for that stable and to embarrass me publicly,” Nikolic said on Tuesday.
RV barrister Jeff Gleeson QC suggested Nikolic believed the decision to scratch the horse was part of an ongoing conspiracy orchestrated by Bailey and Brown against him.
Nikolic replied: “Something like that.”
“I believe if it had have been another jockey the horse wouldn’t have been scratched,” he added.
Nikolic, who was outed for threatening Bailey at a 2012 race meeting, said he would relocate to Queensland if he regains his jockey licence.
“By relocating I won’t have to put myself in the firing line of Terry Bailey and his henchmen so to speak,” he told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Gleeson suggested Nikolic believed the conspiracy and Bailey’s allegedly corrupt behaviour would continue if the jockey was relicensed.
“On your view Terry Bailey as a corrupt chief of stewards will lay in wait for you, he will be quite prepared to manufacture evidence against you and will continue in his campaign of conspiracies to make your life impossible as a jockey.”
Nikolic said he did not know what Bailey would do but believed he would lose out in that it was his word against the steward’s.
“That’s why I don’t even want to ride in Melbourne and I want to restart my career in another jurisdiction until Terry Bailey is either moved on or retires.
“Do I think he’ll make life hard for me if I ride in this jurisdiction, my honest answer is yes I do.”
Nikolic said he did not know if Robinson, a former policeman, was corrupt but it was possible.
“I think he’s got an opinion about me and he’s gone out of his way to make life very difficult for me.”
Nikolic says he has paid the penalty for past wrongful acts, which include assaulting a fellow jockey, the rider’s girlfriend, a taxi driver and a policeman.
