DISQUALIFIED jockey Danny Nikolic has lodged an appeal with the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal against two decisions made by the Racing Appeals & Disciplinary Board.
Nikolic has asked VCAT to review the rulings of the RAD Board, which rejected his submission that Racing Victoria had no jurisdiction to lay charges against him following incidents with steward Wade Hadley at VCAT last November.
At the RAD Board hearing last month Nikolic’s legal counsel argued unsuccessfully that RV stewards had no power to charge him as he was disqualified at the time of the incidents with Hadley and therefore he wasn’t bound by the rules covering licensed persons.
The 38-year-old jockey has also asked VCAT to review the decision by the RAD Board to reject his submission that he was denied procedural fairness by having the RAD Board hear the charges brought by Racing Victoria.
Racing Victoria charged Nikolic with two counts of improper conduct following separate incidents at VCAT where he was appealing a two year disqualification for having threatened RV chairman of stewards Terry Bailey and his family at Seymour races last September.
RV stewards charged Nikolic for telling Hadley as he left the witness box “you are a disgrace”.
The jockey is also charged with approaching Hadley outside the VCAT hearing room where he said to Hadley “you’re going up in the world. Let’s see where you end up. Look at you – you are a fine ….. specimen of a human being. You are all tarred with the same brush.”
No date has been set for the VCAT hearing.