Darren Weir’s fairytale rise from bush anonymity to Australia’s biggest trainer ends in disgrace

Darren Weir’s legend as a trainer has been obliterated as the racing industry, and broader sporting community, digests a staggering fall from grace, writes Leo Schlink.

Darren Weir is seen in the mounting yard after Mark Zahra rode Quilistato to victory in the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour Trophy during Autumn Raceday at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Saturday, March 17, 2018. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

THE fairytale is over.

The improbable rise from bush anonymity to Melbourne Cup-winning prominence, a tale celebrated across Australia, is dead.

The once warm and fuzzy narrative about Darren Weir’s emergence from the obscurity of Victoria’s Mallee country to one of the world’s most successful trainer’s has been replaced by jarring reality.

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The boy from Berriwillock’s legend has been obliterated as the racing industry, and broader sporting community, digests a staggering fall from grace.

Facing disqualification on serious charges relating to jiggers, Weir’s career is in ruin.

Racing Victoria stewards are pushing for a four-year disqualification.

Darren Weir will not contest the charges issued by stewards. Picture: AAP

Weir is not contesting the charges. He communicated via legal representatives at the gruelling 11-hour hearing at Flemington on Monday night.

His fate will be sealed on Wednesday. He is a broken man.

A string of now hollow 2018-19 season premiership tables echo his fall.

Weir leads Chris Waller by almost 90 wins on national premiership, and still might win it.

With 243 wins in Victoria, he has doubled Lindsay Park’s tally — and will win a sixth consecutive premiership.

Darren Weir rose to national prominence after Prince Of Penzance’s win in the 2015 Melbourne Cup. Picture: Jay Town

Not that it means anything any more.

At 48, Weir is young enough to serve the disqualification and come back to racing.

But to what?

Derision, suspicion and condemnation?

With a separate police investigation running, Weir has plenty to contemplate away from the sport which catapulted him to international eminence.

No top-level operator has come close to training 500 winners in a season.

Darren Weir was Australia’s biggest trainer but his career is in tatters after being charged by stewards. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Weir managed that in 2017-18 with 491, a Commonwealth record.

By week’s end, he is likely to have no horses, an uncertain future and an exile he could never have contemplated.

Racing’s ultimate feel-good story has suddenly morphed into a plot straight out of Stephen King’s horror genre.

It is a confronting and testing time for the sport — and no more so than for the man once championed as the ultimate success story.