Jockey was pushed to her limit

Nikita McLean (left) with fellow jockey Michelle Payne after her five-month suspension was cut in half by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board. Picture: Andrew Brownbill Source: Herald Sun

A SYMPATHETIC appeals board slashed in half a five-month suspension imposed by stewards on jockey Nikita McLean for the assault of her teenage sister, Jackie.

Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board chairman Judge Russell Lewis was frank in his support of 27-year-old McLean, who pushed and punched 18-year-old Jackie Beriman at a recent race meeting at Hamilton.

"He (McLean's husband) had it off with her younger sister," Judge Lewis said.

"She's not a robot."

Earlier on the same day at Hamilton, McLean's estranged husband, jumps jockey Brad McLean, had tapped her on the behind with his whip, upsetting her and contributing to her later assault of her sister.

McLean told stewards at an earlier hearing the sight of her sister parading in front of her in the jockeys' room had also upset her; "a very provocative thing to do", according to Judge Lewis.

Judge Lewis added McLean was vulnerable at Hamilton because it was the first time she had shared a racecourse with her ex and Beriman since their August 2012 affair.

"There is no doubt this young woman has been drawn to the limits," he said.

In successfully arguing that the stewards' penalty of five months was "manifestly unjust", Patrick Whelahan, for Nikita McLean, said the circumstances of the assault were "extreme".

He said McLean had acted "very courteously and professionally" towards her sister since learning of the affair. Judge Lewis described the brief affair as a "gross betrayal".

Mr Whelahan said the five-month suspension would have robbed his client of about $70,000 in earnings; a penalty "completely out of step".

The board heard McLean, now living in Ballarat, shared ownership of a home in Warrnambool with her estranged husband, who lives there, but only Nikita McLean was making mortgage payments.

Board member Brian Forrest asked her if Brad McLean was a "freeloader", and she said "yes".

She later vowed to mend the fractured relationship with her sister and urged other jockeys to also forgive Beriman.

Racing Victoria and the jockeys' association intends to begin mediation and increase counselling for the sisters. Jackie Beriman had been ostracised by other jockeys since the affair.

Nikita McLean's suspension ends on June 30.

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