The partner of suspended jockey Danny Nikolic has been charged for placing lay bets on horses trained by Robert Smerdon.
Tania Hyett was a stable employee of Smerdon and between December 20 last year and April 17 placed, or had placed on her behalf, 34 bets laying Smerdon-trained horses through her Betfair account.
Racing Victoria stewards charged her on Wednesday for contravening the rule that bans any person employed by a trainer laying horses from that stable.
On the same day she was charged, Nikolic was escorted from the restricted area of the jockeys’ weighing room at Flemington after Salute To Jude, a horse part-owned by Hyett, finished third in a race at the track.
Steward Robert Cram said that as a suspended person, Nikolic was not entitled to be in that area.
The investigation into Hyett’s account began when stewards were alerted to irregular betting activities on the Jason Warren-trained Baron Archer after he finished third as second favourite in a five-horse race at Echuca in March.
Baron Archer was laid heavily to lose.
Warren was last month fined $17,500 after failing to report to stewards the horse had undergone throat surgery since his previous start in July 2014.
Baron Archer has since been transferred to the stables of fellow Mornington trainer Wez Hunter.
A date for Hyett’s hearing has yet to be announced.
