The race fixing rumours hounding wounded Darren Weir
Sent in the frantic minutes after last spring’s Victoria Derby, this text shows why the racing community was shocked, but not surprised, by Darren Weir’s downfall. NEW PODCAST — LISTEN NOW
Andrew Rule
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In the frantic minutes after the battlers’ horse Stars Of Carrum ran second in the Victoria Derby last spring, a blizzard of text messages arrived for the man behind the syndicate of 1970s suburban footballers who race the colt.
His name is Peter Cox but he’s not one of the W.S. Cox Plate mob who once owned Moonee Valley.
This “Coxy” is a former newspaper photographer who once worked at the Herald Sun’s predecessor The Sun News-Pictorial.
Being the optimist who had punted on buying a $75,000 colt sired by a then unproven stallion, Cox was pretty happy with Stars Of Carrum making such a brave run to finish behind Extra Brut.
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The winner was, after all, trained by Australia’s biggest and “winningest” trainer, Darren Weir. Hundreds of horses — and so thousands of their owners — were used to running second, third and fourth to Weir entries everywhere from Swan Hill to Rosehill.
So Cox and his mates — there are 20 owners in Stars of Carrum — had a big night out to celebrate their thrilling $360,000 brush with the prestige (and $1.2m first prize) of Australasia’s most valuable Derby.
It wasn’t until late that night that Cox scrolled through his text messages. One short text caught his eye. He saved it.
Which explains why, after hearing that police and stewards had raided Weir’s stables last week, Cox found that three-month old text and showed it to his mates.
It reads: “Great horse; great effort; great story. Some might suggest beaten by cheats.”
Whoever wrote the text was hardly Nostradamus. When the Weir “fairy story” ended in tears this week, a lot of racing people were shocked but they weren’t surprised.
Whether Extra Brut had something extra to make him race harder a little longer we might never know.
When it comes to keeping mouths shut, jockeys and trainers are like oysters compared with Lawyer X and the other dial-a-quote informers in and around the legal profession. Not to mention the bankers who threw colleagues under the royal commission bus.
The mystery about past race results means “Coxy” and his 19 co-owners can’t help wondering if they’ve been dudded for a small fortune. You can bet they aren’t the only ones.
Other connections of other horses must be looking hard at certain results of certain races. Especially if more than one Weir horse ran in the race … or if his assistant trainer Jarrod McLean happened to run one.
Take, for instance, last year’s Grand National Hurdle, won by McLean’s heavily-backed Cougar Express after Weir’s runner Bit Of A Lad drifted in the betting then “took on” the favourite in front, setting up the race for McLean’s swooper.
Some watchers were reminded of the time when Lawyer X’s favourite client Tony Mokbel routinely organised jumps races to have profitable and predictable results, something like the National Australia Bank rorting pensioners.
Suspicion and speculation don’t count for much, of course. But since the raids on Weir’s World last week, rumours have run wild.
One persistent suggestion is that Weir meekly ’fessed up to the jiggers in his bedroom safe to avoid or delay further investigation into other breaches of the rules — or the law.
Police joined racing stewards on the raids for a reason: they are investigating whether Weir can be nailed on criminal offences, ranging from animal cruelty to frauds that undermine racing’s integrity.
Lawyers and police use words like “corrupt practice” and “intent to defraud” but plain folk call it race fixing. Here’s how it might happen. Hypothetically.
Let’s imagine someone we call Trainer X who trains so many horses he can swamp whole programs, sometimes with several horses in one race. Meaning Trainer X could conceivably manipulate the finish to land betting coups by beating a favourite with a horse backed at longer odds.
If Trainer X trained the favourite as well as the supposed “sure thing”, it would be a double betrayal, as the stable would be knowingly robbing one of its own clients. To be fair, that is unlikely. It seems more likely that a favourite trained by someone else gets “boxed in” to let the “good thing” win the race and land the bets. This, of course, would require the complicity of jockeys.
The imaginary Trainer X might commit such badness but those who know the real Darren Weir doubt he would. Weir has his critics but they say that despite his long “rap sheet” and undoubted tough streak, he has never blatantly used “team riding” to disadvantage some runners to help others.
It will be interesting to see whether police share that opinion — that’s if they have telephone taps of Weir’s conversations about betting plans and training tricks, as the rumour mill says they have. If such evidence surfaces, and it is heavy enough to prove a civil case, stand by for aggrieved owners and breeders to tote up their losses and holler for lawyers.
The Derby example is just one: IF there is any evidence that Extra Brut’s win came from cheating, not only could the Stars Of Carrum crew make a case that they wuz robbed of almost a million bucks in stakes — but that they lost stud potential that could run into many more millions over a lifetime.
Everyone knows the $9000 yearling Bel Esprit — Black Caviar’s dad — became a successful stallion who has lasted 20 years. The stud that has Bel Esprit happens to own Stars Of Carrum’s sire, the imported Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente, and the owners are already wondering what might have been.
They say that the difference between Stars Of Carrum winning the Derby and running second is worth maybe an extra $10,000 per service fee, spread over 100-plus mares a season. That’s a million bucks a year.
Then there’s the undoubted fact that more elite mares would have been sent to Fiorente if his son won the Derby, thereby ensuring ongoing success.
An extra million in Derby prize money alone would have put Fiorente second only to the hot new sire Zoustar, ensuring publicity and better patronage.
The Derby is just one example of several that racing people talk about among themselves. There are others, such as the dominant win of a young stallion transferred to Weir, the owners hell-bent on winning a Group 1 race so the horse could get a flying start at stud.
The lucky winner stands at a $27,500 fee, whereas the unlucky second placegetter commands half that amount at stud, yet is widely regarded as being better bred.
Then there are the seasoned Japanese sprinters Brave Smash and Tosen Stardom, both sent to Weir to extract elusive Group 1 wins in Australia to set them up for stud careers. Jaded horses sent to Weir’s stables — especially to the beach at Warrnambool — sometimes had truly eye-popping form reversals.
But that’s all history now. The authorities have skilfully isolated and extracted the one rotten apple in the barrel and life goes on. Meanwhile, another trainer who’s had a meteoric rise will take over the sprawling Weir empire at Ballarat.
The new boy in Weir Town will be on his best behaviour since being rubbed out over a dodgy ownership rort involving the international conman, Peter Foster.
What could possibly go wrong? But if it does, the scallywags will have to find a lawyer who’s not fizzing to the police.
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