Bailey may ‘move on’ if Nikolic relicensed
Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey has suggested he may leave his role if Danny Nikolic regains his jockey licence.
Bailey repeatedly said the position between himself and Nikolic was untenable.
“If Danny Nikolic was to be given a licence, well he is given a licence,” he said on Friday.
“Maybe it will be me that will have to move on.”
Bailey said it would be very, very difficult for him or the rest of the stewards to work with Nikolic.
“Our position between Danny Nikolic and the stewards can’t work,” he told Nikolic’s appeal to regain his jockey licence.
Nikolic was outed for two years for threatening Bailey at a September 2012 race meeting before copping a further penalty for offensive conduct towards another steward.
Nikolic had neither apologised for the Seymour incident nor withdrawn the threat, Bailey said in a statement to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“In circumstances where Mr Nikolic has neither expressed any remorse over the incident at Seymour nor withdrawn the threat to my family, I still take the threat he made to me very seriously.”
It showed Nikolic retained the same lack of respect for stewards that he had shown over much of his career as a jockey, he said.
Under questioning by Nikolic’s barrister Julian Burnside QC, Bailey said he was not resentful that the jockey had shown no remorse.
Nikolic has denied telling Bailey “we all have families and I know where yours lives”, saying it was a deliberate and vicious lie by the steward.
Nikolic told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal he never threatened Bailey and the steward was also in the wrong.
He said Bailey threatened to destroy his career and was corrupt and dishonest.
Bailey said he had never told Nikolic he was going to ruin his career.
“It’s all a big fat lie.”
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