Exiled Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir loses appeal against terms of disqualification
Exiled Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir has unsuccessfully appealed the terms of a two-year disqualification for using an electric device on horses.
Supreme Court Justice Finanzio delivered the judgement on Monday.
Weir received a further two-year disqualification in July last year from the Victorian Racing Tribunal in relation to the historic animal cruelty charges.
The sanction banished Weir from working with racehorses in any capacity until to September 2026.
The September 2024 start date had taken into account Weir operated a successful pre-training business prior to the matter finally going through the VRT process.
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Conditions of a disqualification, under Australian racing rules, include a person cannot profit from the industry during the set period.
Therefore, the VRT had no choice but to start the new disqualification at the conclusion of the new Weir matter last year.
Supreme Court Justice Finanzio could not be satisfied – on five grounds advanced by Weir – that the VRT erred on legal grounds in its decision.
The Weir defence, heard by Justice Finanzio in April, revolved around 'double punishment', 'special circumstances' and 'unreasonable penalty'.
Justice Finanzio endorsed the VRT process and decision across all three grounds for the Weir appeal.
'It's true while unlicensed he was not able to fully participate in the racing industry as a horse trainer but it remained the case he was entitled to do things and did that a disqualified person would be prohibited from doing, such it was open to the tribunal to treat that as not counting towards disqualification,' Justice Finanzio said.
'The tribunal had discretion to consider all of these matters in setting the period for disqualification and commencement of that period.
'[The tribunal] Exercised that discretion in a way that is free from legal error.'
Weir originally served a four-year disqualification, February 2019 to 2023, for the possession of electronic devices.
Racing Victoria reopened its inquiry into the jigger scandal – mothballed pending any new information – when Victoria Police in late 2023 tendered video footage of Weir using the jiggers on three horses in 2018 as evidence in a related criminal proceeding before the Magistrates' Court.
RV laid additional animal cruelty charges the following year, around the use of the jiggers.
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