JOCKEY Danny Nikolic yesterday denied he had spoken to former bookmaker Neville Clements about the chances of nine of his rides under investigation and offered to take a lie-detector test, reports The Age.It says: Nikolic put up a spirited defence to charges of improper practice and conduct prejudicial to the interests of racing, when taking the stand on day two of a Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board hearing.''I never spoke to [Clements] about the horse. That is 100 per cent wrong,'' Nikolic

JOCKEY Danny Nikolic yesterday denied he had spoken to former bookmaker Neville Clements about the chances of nine of his rides under investigation and offered to take a lie-detector test, reports The Age.

It says: Nikolic put up a spirited defence to charges of improper practice and conduct prejudicial to the interests of racing, when taking the stand on day two of a Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board hearing.

''I never spoke to [Clements] about the horse. That is 100 per cent wrong,'' Nikolic said when questioned by Paul Holdenson, QC, for Racing Victoria stewards, as to whether he had spoken to Clements about the chances of Baby Boom, then trained by Nikolic's brother John, before it ran unplaced on January 3 at the Sunshine Coast. Clements laid the horse, who was not ridden by Danny Nikolic, and who started a long odds-on favourite, and won $56,000.

Holdenson had earlier questioned Nikolic about nine of his mounts from last October to February, that Clements had laid to lose.

Nikolic was asked whether he ever told Clements specifically about the chances of the nine. The jockey said he spoke to Clements and another racing analyst, Mark Hunter, regularly about race pace, speed maps and who the chances might be but had not spoken about what he thought of his mounts' chances or how he would ride them.

''I don't get told how to ride horses by form students. I pick their brains,'' he said.

Nikolic was asked whether it was just coincidence that Clements had laid all nine of the mounts to lose. ''It's not just a coincidence. It's the truth,'' the jockey said.

Holdenson also asked Nikolic whether Clements had ever asked for money as a result of suppling information to the jockey. ''I don't think he minds helping me and has never shown any sign of asking for payment. We're friends,'' Nikolic said.

Matthew Clark, a representative of Betfair, produced evidence that the average risk Clements took on Nikolic rides was higher than for any other jockeys' mounts during the period in question and said the figures showed ''a bias towards the Nikolic runners''.

But, it was also established that Clements had lost on four occasions when laying horses ridden by Nikolic.