Melbourne Cup 2015: Prince of Penzance trainer Darren Weir’s rise from country racing to pinnacle of sport

BUSH racing doesn’t get more rough and raw than the day Darren Weir collided with a kangaroo on a drive to a job interview with a country trainer.

Race 7 The Melbourne Cup

BUSH racing doesn’t get more rough and raw than the day a young Darren Weir collided with a kangaroo on a drive to a job interview with a country trainer.

So he simply rode into town on the back of one of the horses he was floating.

The one-time battler from the bush wrote his name into Melbourne Cup folklore when the larrikin Aussie beer drinker beat sheiks, princes and bluebloods.

Weir has come a long way since he didn’t have two cents to rub together as he was striving to get into the training business.

“I was 18, I had no money and I hit a kangaroo on the road as I was driving a horse float,’’ Weir recalled with a chuckle.

“It was a fair walk to the stables of the trainer I was going to in Stawell, so I decided to ride in.

“I started off as a horse breaker and a farrier and then I started mucking around trying to train a horse or two.

“The rest is history.’’

Weir is a knockabout Aussie bloke who hails from Berriwillock, in the Mallee District of Victoria.

It would be an achievement as remarkable as winning the Melbourne Cup itself if the pub there does not run out of beer in the next few days.

Prince Of Penzance is the first ‘local’ horse (who started their career in Australia) to win the Melbourne Cup since Shocking in 2009.

The $50,000 horse won the $6 million race and Weir couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“If it wasn’t me who won it, I was hoping someone else in Victoria or somewhere else in the rest of Australia would have won the Cup,’’ Weir said.

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“You can have plenty of money in this game but you need a lot of luck as well. And today we were the ones who got the luck.

“It was an amazing feeling at the 100m mark when he was a length or so in front and an even better feeling when that winning post came up.

“Realistically, I thought he was a top-10 chance in the race.’’

Prince Of Penzance’s trainer Darren Weir celebrates with the Melbourne Cup.

Weir has been a big name in Victorian training for several years now although it wasn’t so long ago he was an anonymous toiler just trying to make a quid.

But he always had big dreams. Including a bold plan to win four Cups, culminating with Australia’s biggest race.

“This is a dream come true,’’ he said.

Winning trainer Darren Weir and jockey Michelle Payne celebrate Prince Of Penzance’s Melbourne Cup triumph. Picture: Colleen Petch

“Obviously there was the Stawell Cup, because that’s where I started training.

“Then there was the Ballarat Cup, which we were lucky enough to win with the same horse called Just The Part.

“Then the Swan Hill Cup was on the radar as well, because I come from a place called Berriwillock, the local town, and we were lucky enough to win that with a horse called Can Do.

“Then this was the fourth Cup I wanted to win. I was dreaming, but some dreams come true obviously. ‘’