Nine years ago, Darren Weir kicked off an unprecedented winning run on the opening day of Warrnambool’s May Racing Carnival.
For three years straight, from 2016 to 2018, he trained four winners on the opening day of the popular country event.
Darren Weir has appealed a racing tribunal finding in the Supreme Court.Credit: Jason South
But on Tuesday, 10 races were run and won at Warrnambool, including a spectacular two-horse fall in the Brierley Steeplechase, while Weir sat in the Supreme Court appealing the end date of his latest two-year disqualification.
Weir has not been back to Warrnambool Racecourse since 2018. He was banned for four years in February 2023, and copped another two-year disqualification in September 2024.
Under the current Victoria Racing Tribunal ruling, he cannot reapply for a new trainer’s licence until the eve of next year’s spring carnival.
But Weir’s counsel, Barrister Jim Murdoch KC, argued in court on Tuesday that the time – six years in total – should have already been served.
Murdoch said Weir’s appeal against the tribunal’s September 2024 ruling would be argued on three points: double punishment, special circumstances and an unreasonable aggregate of penalty.
Murdoch told the court that Weir’s two separate disqualifications of four years for possessing jiggers and two years for using a jigger arose out of the same course of conduct.
A secret police video showed Weir using a jigger on three of his horses at his Warrnambool stables on October 30, 2018, while a subsequent police raid three months later found three jiggers in the bedroom of his Ballarat house.
“Where there is use, there is possession,” Murdoch argued of the double punishment.
Murdoch then told the court that the tribunal had not considered Weir’s early guilty plea as a special circumstance when determining their latest ban – a factor that could have allowed them to reduce the penalty.
But at the heart of Weir’s appeal was the principle of totality – that the tribunal did not backdate his second disqualification.
His original four-year ban ended on February 5, 2023, while the second disqualification of two years did not start until September 2, 2024 – a period of 19 months.
Darren Weir and Michelle Payne after Prince Of Penzance won the 2015 Melbourne Cup.Credit: Justin McManus
“That means, as we see it, that he will have been excluded from his primary occupation, a licensed racehorse trainer, since the 6th of February 2019 to the 8th of September 2026,” Murdoch told the court.
“While barristers are bad at mathematics, I make it at seven years and seven months.”
Murdoch said the “unfortunate and unacceptable delay” in bringing the second set of charges before the racing tribunal was not Weir’s fault.
“The same could not be said for the stewards,” he said.
During the time that elapsed between bans Weir operated a successful horse pre-training and spelling business at his Maldon property.
The tribunal found in September that this substantial operation meant Weir made money from the thoroughbred industry, which would not have been allowed had he been disqualified.
For that reason, the tribunal ruled the penalty should not be backdated.
But Murdoch argued that Weir had been entitled to make a living, his business was in compliance with the rules and Racing Victoria stewards were aware of what he had been doing.
“But that seemed to be used against him,” Murdoch said.
The court heard Weir did not reapply for a trainer’s licence after his first disqualification ended because stewards had rekindled their investigation and the likelihood of a licence being granted was “remote”.
At the same time, the court heard police were seeking an order to have Weir excluded from all racecourses and race venues under the Racing Act – proceedings that were shelved in March 2024.
Barrister Paul Holdenson KC, counsel for Racing Victoria stewards, told the court that under the rules of racing a disqualified person was not allowed to receive any direct or indirect income from thoroughbred racing.
He said if the tribunal had backdated Weir’s ban to include the period of his pre-training business, he would not have served a total of six years because he was “doing things that he couldn’t do if he was disqualified”.
Holdenson argued that there had been no double punishment against Weir because the two different sets of charges stemmed from two different dates – the use of a jigger in October 2018 and the possession of jiggers in January 2019.
Holdenson told the court that the tribunal was not required to find that special circumstances existed, and even if they did exist such a finding did not necessitate a reduction in penalty.
Justice Adrian Finanzio has reserved his decision.
* Two jockeys who fell during the Brierly Steeplechase at Warrnambool on Tuesday – Will Gordon and Martin Kelly – escaped injury, while their horses, Leaderboard and Bazini, will need vet clearances before being allowed to race again.
