Stewards have sought a further penalty of “no less than 10 years” for disgraced trainer Darren Weir for use of jiggers on three racehorses.
In a Victorian Racing Tribunal penalty hearing on Monday, stewards said the use of jiggers was “abhorrent”.
They told the tribunal they were seeking a penalty of no less than 10 years for Weir to send a clear message to the racing industry and society that this “behaviour will simply not be condoned”.
The 10 years’ ban submission was in addition to the four-year ban Weir had already served for possession of the jiggers between February 2019 and February 2023.
“It must be treated sternly … racing’s social license must be protected,” stewards’ legal representative, Albert Dinelli KC, said.
“It was cruel and an unfair advantage … they were caught red-handed (on October 30, 2018 which was one week before the Melbourne Cup).”
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They sought no less than seven years’ further penalty for Weir’s former staff members, Jarrod McLean and Tyson Kermond, who were also caught on covert video surveillance.
Mr Dinelli said the jigger use on the three horses — Red Cardinal, Yogi and Tosen Basil — was “cruel” which was done solely to improve the horses’ racetrack performance.
“The RSPCA speaks firmly against this conduct,” he said.
Ian Hill KC, for Weir, said Weir had complied with stewards ever since he was banned for four years in February 2019, including not attending yearling sales and metropolitan race meetings.
Mr Hill said Weir had been punished emotionally and financially over the past five years, which already acted as a deterrent to others.
He argued strongly against imposing a further 10-year ban on Weir, saying any penalty should be “fair and just”.
Mr Hill is pushing for no further penalty for Weir given the penalties he had already served, and that he be allowed to continue pre-training horses.
Mr Hill said the offending by Weir was “only for a short time … less than hour … on one day”.
“(Weir) is contrite, and remorseful, and completely rehabilitated,” he said.
Mr Hill said Weir had many testimonials, including from respected former judge, Peter Couzens, who had horses being pre-trained by Weir.
He said Weir employed about 35 people on his property, which was pre-training dozens of horses, and if he was to be banned again, those people would lose their jobs.
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Mr Hill said the three horses involved “were not affected” by the use of the jigger.
“We can’t say what the level of shock was, if any,” he said. “This is a man (Weir) who has changed.”
Barrister Damian Sheales, for McLean and Kermond, said trainer Paul Preusker, who was banned for four years in 2007 for jigger use, was banned after he had used them for three months in trackwork “at the 100m”.
“How can (Weir, McLean and Kermond) be viewed as more culpable than Preusker?” Sheales said.
Weir, wearing a blue suit and grey tie, is attending the hearing, which is being held in the Melbourne CBD.
Weir walked into the hearing room smiling, but then sat ashen-faced at the side of the room as Mr Dinelli read out the stewards’ scathing penalty submission.
The hearing continues.
EARLIER:
The 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Darren Weir pleaded guilty last March to using an electronic shock device – a jigger – on three racehorses in his care at Warrnambool in October 2018.
Weir served a four-year disqualification, expired in February 2023, for possession of the apparatuses.
Racing Victoria stewards last September laid new 10 charges against Weir and former staff Jarrod McLean and Tyson Kermond in for animal cruelty and corruption.
The corruption charges were dismissed last month, with the VRT unable to be satisfied the use of the jigger had any effect on the outcome of select races including the 2018 Melbourne Cup.
Weir, McLean and Kermond pleaded guilty to the animal cruelty charges at the earliest opportunity.
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Weir’s stables are raided in 2019.
The charges stem from an adjourned stewards’ inquiry into the 2019 jigger scandal reactivated in December 2022 after further evidence, closed-circuit television footage, was presented by Victoria Police in a Magistrates’ Court during criminal proceedings against the trio.
The vision, also aired during the course of the latest VRT hearing, showed Weir using a jigger repeatedly on three horses – Red Cardinal, Yogi and Tosen Basil – being exercised on a treadmill.
Red Cardinal finished 23rd of 24 runners in the Melbourne Cup a few days later, and was beaten nearly 70 lengths.
The VRT last month received submissions on penalty from stewards and counsels acting for Weir, McLean and Kermond.