Racing Victoria stewards have issued nine charges against jockey Danny Nikolic following an extended investigation. Two charges allege improper practices in connection with racing and a further two chargesallege conduct prejudicial to the interests of racing -- that he had formed associations with persons and through communications with them they made lay bets well outside the associates' normal betting patterns. These were placed on Betfair against a number of Nikolic's rides between October 1,

Racing Victoria stewards have issued nine charges against jockey Danny Nikolic following an extended investigation. Two charges allege improper practices in connection with racing and a further two chargesallege conduct prejudicial to the interests of racing -- that he had formed associations with persons and through communications with them they made lay bets well outside the associates' normal betting patterns. These were placed on Betfair against a number of Nikolic's rides between October 1, 2009 and February 13, 2010. Stewards issued a fifth charge against Nikoli for allegedly engaging in improper behaviour before stewards at the Moonee Valley race meeting on February 13, 2010. A further four charges have been laid against Nikolic for leaving the jockeys' room during riding commitments without the permission of stewards and making contact with various associates via his mobile phone. No date is yet fixed for the charges to be heard.

So what have the stewards come up with after 4 months? Not much, it seems. They looked at 10 of Nikolic's rides and not one of them is included in any of the charges. We can assume, then, that stewards could find nothing wrong with them. Most of the charges seem to be there to fill up the bottle.