Paying tribute to the phenomenon that is Darren Weir
The 48-year-old is arguably the greatest phenomenon in the history of Australian racing, certainly in Victorian racing.
“There has not been anyone emerge quite like Darren Weir in my time covering racing. Nobody so dominant, not even the legendary names like Smith and Hayes and Cummings. Definitely not in Victoria,” says Tony Bourke, former chief racing writer of The Age, who’s reported on the sport for more than 50 years.
“Everybody wants a horse with Darren Weir,” says leading syndicator Wylie Dalziel. “We didn’t used to have horses with him but we do now. Every second or third potential client will
ask ‘will the horse be trained by Darren Weir?’. You can’t ignore that or his success. He’s not that expensive and he’s very good at telling you early whether the horse is worth persevering with.”
Lachlan McKenzie, chief executive of the Ballarat Turf Club, says Weir’s economic impact on the club and the city is enormous and one of the key drivers behind the proposed creation of a township. Good heavens.
The City of Ballarat has announced it is partnering with the Miners Rest community to deliver “The Miners Rest Plan: Our Township Towards 2040”. Miners Rest is now a one pub, one
general store, one supermarket dot about one kilometre from Weir’s principal base at the Ballarat racecourse, but it’s growing. Who knows – they might call it Weir Town.
“The City Of Ballarat might not credit Weir with the acceleration of the Miners Rest township plan but there’s no doubt he’s a big part of it,” Mckenzie said. “For starters, you only have to
consider that he has 80 employees at Ballarat to get some small measure of his economic impact.
“Secondly, when I started here (2011) Ballarat was ranked the fifth major training centre in Victoria, measured by starter numbers. Ballarat has now leap-frogged Caulfield and Mornington to be third behind Cranbourne and Flemington and we’re only just behind Flemington.
“And this is not because of a wholesale increase in the number of Weir runners but the numbers generated by other trainers, most of whom were in part drawn to Ballarat by Weir’s success.
“Mitch Freedman, Henry Dwyer, Symon Wilde, Nick Smart, Archie Alexander and Matt Cumani have set up here and probably created another 80 jobs and generated numerous starters.”
McKenzie says Weir’s positive impact is tangible and intangible. “There’s little doubt his presence would increase visits to Ballarat, and therefore local spend, from owners and his
success is infectious. The main street of Ballarat was shut with 3,500 people attending a civic reception after he won the Cup and last Saturday night, after his great day at Caulfield, he was back here at 7.30 for our awards night and his presence took the atmosphere to the next level,” he said.
Weir’s operation has generated income for other trainers either in terms of leasing boxes from them or creating pre-training jobs and McKenzie doubts there’s any resentment towards him.
“Make no mistake, he has a phenomenal competitive streak but he’s always willing to offer advice to anyone who cares to ask and he allows other trainers the use of his pool and treadmill,” he said.
Even so there, of course, has to be a downside for his fellow trainers if he keeps winning all the races. By definition, they’re winning fewer. The number of top class trainers who prepared fewer than 20 metropolitan winners last season in Victoria is possibly scary. Less winners, less income, less spend at the yearling sales which might have the auction houses offering ever more generous terms of credit or have the farms obliged to support household names who are becoming ‘smaller’ trainers.
Weir’s sheer volume of winners is unprecedented and his rate of growth so spectacular it’s prompted discussion as to whether his numbers should be capped. That won’t and ought not
happen but how the industry responds if his success continues to escalate may well become an important debate.
Weir himself is a bit coy about his numbers and racing officials won’t tell me. It’s generally guessed to be around 800.
Let’s say it’s 700 and we average the training bill at $40,000 per annum given they’re not all in work all of the time. That’s a $28 million business. His horses won $31.3 million last season.
He trained 490 winners last season. That’s 152 more than Chris Waller. That’s nine more than the Hayes team and James Cummings combined.
He’s trained 23 Group 1 winners in the three seasons before this – compared to six in the three seasons before that. His total number of season winners has steadily climbed in that time frame as follows: 184, 253, 298, 348, 449, 490. And there’s no sign of the success abating.
“He’s got an army of stakes horses here now and not just the ones you already know but others he’s been grooming for the past 12 months or so,” McKenzie said.
He’s training for major studs, wealthy individuals and broad customer based syndication groups with reach beyond just Australia.
His rivals talk of his incredible knowledge of his horses despite the number he deals with. There clearly seems to be something of the genius or savant or both about him.
He talks of the system and the routine and the heavy sand and getting their manners right. He gets a lot right. And he did tell Michael Felgate, on RSN radio on Monday, that his current
group of horses is ‘the best team’ he has had.
He is a phenomenon.