Jockey Danny Nikolic is embroiled in another controversy after he was accused of "stopping" Trustus in the Winter Championship Final at Flemington.Brian Johnston, who co-trains the four-year-old with his wife Fran Houlahan, lodged a complaint on behalf of the connections with stewards over Nikolic's riding tactics on the gelding who started $11 and finished 10th to Doubtful Jack in Saturday's $200,000 1600m feature.A heated exchange took place between Nikolic and Johnston in the stewards' room,

Jockey Danny Nikolic is embroiled in another controversy after he was accused of "stopping" Trustus in the Winter Championship Final at Flemington.

Brian Johnston, who co-trains the four-year-old with his wife Fran Houlahan, lodged a complaint on behalf of the connections with stewards over Nikolic's riding tactics on the gelding who started $11 and finished 10th to Doubtful Jack in Saturday's $200,000 1600m feature.

A heated exchange took place between Nikolic and Johnston in the stewards' room, with panel chairman Allan Reardon warning both parties to calm down.

Johnston accused Nikolic of not riding to instructions to have Trustus in a forward position but the jockey countered that he told connections before the race that his plan was always to track odds-on favourite Doubtful Jack.

Johnston said Nikolic had ridden Trustus contrary to the way the horse had been ridden by other jockeys in recent starts.

"What I said before the race was don't have the horse six or eight horses back. Have him there," Johnston said.

"He didn't ride to instructions to go forward and possie up and instead chose to come back behind Doubtful Jack which in my view was the wrong thing to do.

"The horse went back, back, back, back, back.

"He made some ground for a portion of the straight and then I was too disgusted and I walked away from the clock tower (near the 200m).

"My sentiments are the same as the other owners."

Nikolic angrily fired back at Johnston's allegation that he had "stopped" Trustus from running on his merits.

"What do I get out of stopping this horse in the main race of the day," Nikolic said.

"You (Johnston) accuse me of stopping one after the bullshit I have gone through," he added referring his recent well-publicised battle with stewards.

"I'm getting sick and tired being called a thief or a fraud.

"I tried to make it (Trustus) begin, got a bit of cover, and got dragged back."

While agreeing that he was told ride the horse handy, Nikolic lost the back of Doubtful Jack when that horse went forward one off the fence leaving him stranded on the rails.

"No doubt he asked me to be a bit closer," Nikolic conceded. "He didn't want me eight or nine lengths back.

"But I said before the race I was going to try and get on Doubtful Jack's back.

"I said if we can beat Doubtful Jack we win the race."

But Nikolic said the only way he could keep following Doubtful Jack was if he pushed Darren Gauci's mount Tiakinui out across the heels of another horse.

"I can only be dictated to where I can go in the race by the horses in front of me," Nikolic said.

"I had to sit there and once the tempo was slowing there was nothing I could do."

Nikolic alleged that Johnston had a history of complaining about the rides of other jockeys in the past and speculated that Johnston had heavily backed Trustus.

He also alleged that Johnston had declared Trustus "a moral" and that it would be "a good way to stick it up the stewards if I was to win on this horse".

Stewards adjourned the inquiry to a date to be fixed.

Only last month Nikolic was cleared by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board of two charges of engaging in improper practice and two of conduct prejudicial to the image of racing after an exhaustive 137-day inquiry into 21 of his rides earlier this season.