Will Darren Weir ever be 'fit and proper" to race again?
- Bruce Clark
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
With the Racing Victoria Board rejecting a licence application from a former banned employee as being "unsuitable", what chance has Weir got?
Racing Victoria has flagged the challenge that Melbourne Cup winning trainer Darren Weir will face into any possible return to the sport in their rejection of a licence for his former employee Tyson Kermond.
The RV Board last week officially informed Kermond that he did not meet the requirements of its “Suitability Policy”, in rejecting his application to ride trackwork after more than five years suspended and disqualified away from the game.
Kermond was the foreman at Weir’s Warrnambool stables at the time of the infamous use of an electrical apparatus (jigger) on three horses back in October 2018.
Weir is now serving a two-year disqualification for use of that device - on top of an original four-year ban for possession (served from February 2019 to 2023), after failing to have dates for the varied penalties imposed by the Victoria Racing Tribunal altered in his favour last month at the Court of Appeal.
Weir is now not eligible to consider re-applying for any form of licence until September next year (2026).
Nor can he pre-train any thoroughbred at his Trevenson Park property, as he did in the intermittent time between the two previous penalties.
His former assistant trainer Jarrod McLean has served his nine-month disqualification (after a suspension from October 2019 until December 2022) in relation to his involvement in the matter and has been working in the hospitality industry at Warrnambool. He is yet to indicate if he will re-apply for any form of a licence.
Kermond, disqualified for three months (from September last year), served the same suspension as McLean, for being a party to the incident at Weir’s stables in 2018, and has been working as a livestock agent in south-western Victoria.
He sought RV approval to return as a track rider with the support of the Maddie Raymond-Paddy Bell stable where he used to previously work in Warrnambool.
But the RV Board - in denying the application - informed Kermond of the reasons that they deemed him “not a fit and proper person” under their “Suitability” policy.
"In reaching its decision to deny your Application, the RV Board took into consideration, amongst other things, the following:
• Having regard to section 3(e) of the Suitability Policy, the seriousness of offences included in your disciplinary history with RV, as reflected by a period of disqualification and suspension;
• Having regard to section 3(I) of the Suitability Policy, your lack of cooperation with the Stewards in the past;
• Having regard to section 3(o) of the Suitability Policy, you pleaded guilty to three counts of animal cruelty at the Warrnambool Magistrates' Court;
• You were not considered to have demonstrated sufficient insight or remorse; and
• You currently have outstanding matters at the VRT.
It concluded that the RV Board “did not consider your circumstances warranted the exercise of its discretion to grant relief from the requirements of RV's Suitability Policy.”
So, if Kermond is to pursue challenges to the above and aspirations to any return to the racing industry as a track rider at the very least, it is understood he has the only option of an appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Kermond, along with Weir and McLean, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in December 2022, to those three charges of animal cruelty, in relation to the use of the jigger on the horses Red Cardinal, Tosen Basil and Yogi, a 15-minute Victoria Police video first played in public court at the time.
Magistrate Franz Johann Holzer fined both Weir and McLean $36,000 for the three counts of animal abuse. Kermond was ordered to donate $10,000 to the RSPCA.
No criminal convictions were ordered against the trio.
But the conclusion of those police matters saw RV, eventually some 10 months later, lay an additional 10 charges against the trio, with use (as opposed to the original possession charge against Weir), along with McLean and Kermond being a party to rule breaches on animal cruelty, dishonesty and misleading behaviour charges, against them.
BACKGROUND in relation to Darren Weir from Victorian Racing Tribunal findings.
From the VRT of September 2, 2024:
Judge Bowman: “Firstly, a disqualification of four years-imposed 6 February 2019 should be taken into account.
“Secondly, he (Weir) limited himself greatly to any participation in racing since the expiry of the four-year penalty in February pending the present charges.
“Thirdly, Mr Weir faced a considerable number of police charges concerned with jiggers and animal welfare in the Magistrates Court. Most were not pursued but ultimately, he plead guilty to cruelty and was fined $36,000 without a recorded conviction. (14 December 22), that should be taken into account.
“And next, he had these charges and their predecessor of possession hanging over him five-and-a-half years.”
“There is no suggestion that any part of that delay is anyway attributable to him.
“The same could not be said of the stewards.
“Apart from anything else there is no acceptable explanation as to why there was such a delay between the expiry date of the four-year period of disqualification in February 2023 and laying of the present charges in September of that year.”
“We accept he is genuinely remorseful. He has been frank and co-operative with the stewards, he has pleaded guilty to the present charges and did so at an early stage when they were laid.
"Thus, there are a number of mitigating factors operating.
A raft of “impressive” listed character references was tendered – “In our collective years performing this work we have never seen such a powerful collection,” Bowman said, but added.
“That is not to minimise the gravity of the offending. Repeated application of the jigger to the horses represents cruelty to which Mr Weir has pleaded guilty.
“It is behaviour which the industry will not tolerate. The use of jigger is major offence which should attract a significant penalty,” he said.
Stewards found McLean and Kermond aided and abetted Weir and assisted in the handling of the horses.
McLean "struck each of the horses with a poly pipe numerous time”, while Kermond handled the lead ropes and blinkers.
Based on vision aired in court, the horses were led onto a treadmill and exercised with and without blinkers as Weir, flanked by Kermond and McLean, allegedly used a jigger repeatedly on their flanks, hindquarters and backs.
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