Nikolic fight goes to Aust’s highest court

Jockey Danny Nikolic will go to Australia’s highest court to fight a police order banning him from Victorian race meetings.

But Nikolic still faces “insurmountable hurdles” in his separate battle to regain his jockey licence after four years on the sidelines, a tribunal has heard.

The Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the Victorian police chief commissioner’s challenge to a decision that overturned an order banning Nikolic from specified racecourses during race meetings.

Special leave to appeal that decision is being sought, Nikolic’s barrister Julian Burnside QC on Wednesday told the jockey’s separate appeal to be relicensed.

Racing Victoria barrister Jeff Gleeson QC said Nikolic cannot be licensed as a jockey if he is excluded from attending racecourses on race days.

Gleeson said there were a number of other insurmountable hurdles to Nikolic being relicensed, including his claim Victorian racing’s chief umpires are corrupt.

“It is high farce to suggest that a person who maintains the view that the chief regulators are corrupt is a proper person to be licensed,” Gleeson told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Nikolic has told VCAT, RV integrity services head Dayle Brown and chief steward Terry Bailey are corrupt.

Gleeson said Nikolic has not withdrawn a threat against Bailey’s family.

“One can scarcely think of a more serious behaviour that would preclude a person from being licensed.”

Gleeson said Nikolic had lied in repeatedly denying making the threat.

“He hates Terry Bailey. He thinks he is corrupt,” he said.

Gleeson said RV would be in an impossible position if Nikolic regained his licence and every decision would be supercharged with a perception of vendetta or going soft.

Nikolic was outed for two years for threatening Bailey at a September 2012 race meeting before copping a further one-year suspension for offensive conduct towards another steward.

A barrister for Nikolic has previously said he could still ride trackwork and might be able to ride interstate if he regains his jockey licence, even with the police exclusion order in place.