THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - WHEN PERSONAL CONFLICT ADVERSELY AFFECTS AN INDUSTRY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, September 9, 2012

By the very the nature of the long established protocol, a jockey’s relationship with race meeting stewards has to be kept at an arm’s length.

Quite simply, the two parties, with one often asked to officially adjudicate on the others performance, cannot be over-friendly. That would only fuel conspiracy theories on how favouritism might applied in certain rulings, so it is essential that the required discipline is applied by all involved.

Similarly, the vibe cannot be too acrimonious. That would be entirely self-defeating in terms of the structured chain of authority that is needed to keep the racing ship, which often likes to pull in different directions, on an even keel.

When this latter situation, in particular, gets out of hand the consequences for racing are dire. That is why the situation in Victoria with Danny Nicolic’s on-going feud with Chief Steward Terry Bailey has got to be resolved, and resolved very quickly.

It is fair to say that their conflict has transcended racing and racing’s rules. It has become very, very personal to the point where their interaction, whoever is to blame, is arguably bringing racing into disrepute.

Others who bring racing into disrepute, sometimes on a more minor scale than this dispute, are usually slapped down directly with good reason so, at very least, some strong action is required here.

Having said that, with everybody these days having over-guarded ‘rights’ and recourse for appeal … and appeal … and then a court ruling, trying to get anything of a contentious matter resolved quickly might be a fool’s errand as either aggrieved part can keep the case locked up in legal gridlock for years … but still there is no harm in searching for a more reasonable solution than that.

Clearly Nikolic and Bailey cannot sort their source of disagreement themselves. Their situation has only got worse with the passing of time and their repeated clashes are becoming absolutely tiresome to the regular racegoer.

When a personal conflict gets to a stage of disrupting a race-meeting as it did at Seymour during the week, where there was a delay and a threat of a jockey strike, things have gone way past just getting out of hand.

Without prejudice against Bailey’s name, perhaps it would be better for the Chief Steward to recluse himself from the host of enquiries that Nikolic’s misadventures will see him involved in over the coming weeks, other than that of a witness when required.

With any alleged victimization option removed from the argument perhaps it would then be easier for Nikolic to accept that racing has some right to rule on its own industry issues.

Of course that’s not going to happen, so all we can do is settle down to watch the next edition of this soap opera.

More's the pity!

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