COMMENT: Darren Weir is entitled to a second chance … just not as a horse trainer

More than 600 days since covert video revealing Darren Weir using a jigger on three horses was first aired publicly, the disgraced trainer has been handed a new two-year disqualification. But in racing’s case, time doesn’t heal all wounds.

Signage at Darren Weir’s former Miners Rest base is seen in 2019.

If 10 months for stewards to conclude the reactivated Darren Weir jigger probe and level charges is “unfortunate and basically unacceptable”, what do we make of the 12 months the Victorian Racing Tribunal has taken to finalise the matter?

Time for matters to be listed, heard, deliberated and decided has again sharpened into focus delays – not all VRT-caused – which take a financial and emotional toll on all parties involved.

Something has got to give.

Either lighten the load on the VRT, allow stewards to handle more of the less serious offences, or provide more support to the tribunal.

• Weir given seven days to relocate horses as disqualification confirmed

It has taken almost 20 months for Weir and former employees Jarrod McLean and Tyson Kermond to learn their fate over historic animal cruelty charges for the use of a jigger – an electric shock device – on three racehorses in 2018.

They waited 274 days for Racing Victoria stewards to complete an adjourned inquiry, which included more than 100 statements, and issue new charges, before another 186 days passed for a part contested hearing to begin.

The trio all pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, but corruption charges – the alleged use of the jigger to affect the result of a race – were dismissed.

The three-person VRT panel, chaired by Judge John Bowman, reconvened 109 days after the hearing to deliver its unanimous decision – a two-year disqualification for Weir – but did not consider or set a start date.

As disqualification is mandatory for animal cruelty matters, the only thing really unknown was the start date.

Darren Weir celebrates a victory on Derby Day, 2018. Picture: Jay Town

Here we are, almost two months further down the track (59 days), finally getting a resolution 12 months after the matter was listed with the VRT.

Quite staggering, especially as Judge Bowman gave stewards a broadside in the decision about a 10-month delay being “unfortunate and basically unacceptable”.

The entire ordeal has taken 628 days since vision from a CCTV camera, installed covertly by Victoria Police in Weir’s then Warrnambool stable, was first aired publicly in a Magistrate’s Court on December 14, 2022. That vision showed Weir repeatedly using a jigger on three horses – Red Cardinal, Tosen Basil and Yogi.

The VRT will again reconvene on Tuesday to confirm the dates of a nine-month disqualification for McLean and a three-month disqualification for Kermond.

Will that spell the end of the saga?

The unfortunate reality is probably not.

Weir has 28 days to appeal the disqualification, effective from Monday, September 9, 2024.

The latest ban follows the four-year disqualification already served for the historic animal cruelty and possession of the jigger.

The new two-year expulsion could not be backdated to February 2023, when the previous ban expired, as Weir has made a living from the industry the past 12 months, running a thriving pre-training business with his aspiring horse trainer daughters, Bonnie and Taige.

Under the rules of racing, a disqualified person cannot have any involvement, nor benefit from the sport, for the set period of time.

EXCLUSIVE FEATURE: ‘It ate away at me, the first couple of years were very tough': Darren Weir's exile revealed in his first interview. @snowyclarkhttps://t.co/NVUHztUtFkpic.twitter.com/WuS2XQTNW0

— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) December 25, 2023

An appeal has the potential to alter Weir’s fate on a disqualification front only, should he go down that path.

Any future training ambitions Weir has (or hasn’t got) rest with the RV board following consideration from the licensing panel.

The Suitability Policy’s eligibility criteria includes an applicant’s record of compliance to racing rules and conduct in relation to “any matter related to animal welfare”.

Weir has form on both fronts.

It makes a return difficult – if not impossible – and rightly so.

It is not only a matter of does Weir want to train, but could he stomach going through the process only to be denied time and again?

Weir has a lot of friends in racing – from battlers to billionaires, trainers, jockeys, owners, media and administrators, past and present – to push a case for a comeback. In this instance, however, racing law makers must protect the sport from itself.

Staff prepare horses for trackwork at Darren Weir's Miners Rest stable. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Animal welfare is the foundation of racing’s social license, sustainability and viability, not only in Australia but around the world.

Imagine the emotive propaganda anti-racing types could roll out if Weir were allowed back in?

It is unfortunate but Weir, like all figureheads of any sport or industry, must be judged to a higher mark than rank and file participants, if nothing else as a deterrent.

Weir was the biggest and best trainer in Australian racing at his peak, before the 30-minutes of madness days before the 2018 Melbourne Cup.

Weir is entitled to a second chance, as stated before by this columnist, just not as a horse trainer.

Originally published as COMMENT: Darren Weir is entitled to a second chance … just not as a horse trainer