Trainer’s horses scratched
Racing Victoria stewards have moved against Australia’s leading trainer Darren Weir by forcing the scratching of the 27 horses he had down to race in Victoria over the next 24 hours.
At about 5pm yesterday, Racing Victoria stewards withdrew the nine horses Weir had at The Valley meeting last night before scratching his 11 runners at Caulfield and the seven runners at Kyneton today, reports Racing.com.
Stewards also scratched the one runner at
The Valley from Warrnambool trainer Jarrod McLean, who was also stood down pending police investigations into alleged activities at Weir’s stables at Ballarat and Warrnambool.
Earlier, Weir had been issued with six charges by Racing Victoria relating to possession of jiggers, failing to give evidence, failing to comply with stewards’ orders and for bringing racing into disrepute.
Weir’s stable foreman McLean was issued four charges and stable employee Tyson Kermond two charges.
Many of his employees are young adults and I’d imagine they would be pretty worried at the recent developments. Brett Edgington, Ballarat Trades and Labour Council
Both Weir and McLean are currently undergoing show cause hearings by telephone with Racing Victoria stewards with Racing Victoria expected to release further information this weekend.
Meanwhile, the charges against Weir could have significant financial impact reaching into the millions.
The leading trainer has as many as 150 staff and more than 600 horses across three bases.
The facilities include Forest Lodge at Miners Rest near Ballarat, his Warrnambool stable, as well as a training facility and farm at Trevenson Park at Maldon.
Horse racing in Ballarat generates an annual economic impact of A$59 million and Weir trains a third of the horses in the region.
In Warrnambool it’s a similar story, with the industry generating more than A$20m with Weir training more than 100 horses in the area.
Concerns have been raised in both cities about the potential job losses if the trainer is stood down.
“He is certainly a major employer within Ballarat and the wider region,” said Brett Edgington, secretary of the Ballarat Trades and Labour Council.
“Many of his employees are young adults and I’d imagine they would be pretty worried at the recent developments and whether or not they will still have jobs moving forward.
“We don’t have too much to do with them because they aren’t unionised, but we know many of the employees are from the local area.
“If Darren Weir did have to close his operation it would be a significant loss to the industry in our city.
“Hopefully if this did happen some of the workers would be able to get jobs at other stables in Ballarat but we know many of them are pretty full so we are concerned about where many of these workers, most of them young, would get new jobs.”