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Damning video of Melbourne Cup-winning trainer giving horses repeated electric shocks while it ran on a treadmill has been released to the public for the first time.
The footage – which was released by the Victorian Racing Tribunal on Friday – was taken in October 2018 on a camera Victorian police secretly installed at Weir's stables in Warrnambool, around 250km south-west of Melbourne.
Weir is seen using an electric device known as a jigger to shock blinkered racehorses Red Cardinal, Tosen Basil and Yogi 25 times in total.
The trainer is accompanied by his ex-assistant trainer Jarrod McLean and ex-stable hand Tyson Kermond.
The video shows McLean hitting the horses on the hindquarters with a piece of plastic piping.
Weir was charged with animal cruelty and banned from the sport for six years as a result of the footage.
Trainer Darren Weir (pictured) was rubbed out of the sport for a total of six years
Police installed a secret camera in Weir's stable in Victoria and recorded him using a jigger to repeatedly shock three racehorses
Weir (centre) is pictured with jockey Michelle Payne (second from right) after winning the 2015 Melbourne Cup with Prince of Penzance
He was rubbed out for four years in a February 2019 decision after he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing jiggers and one charge of conduct prejudicial to the image of racing.
Another two years were added to the ban in September 2024 when he pleaded guilty to charges of using jiggers, three counts of animal cruelty and one count of improper and dishonourable conduct.
Weir lost a Supreme Court appeal over his disqualification, which will end in September next year.
McLean and Kermond pleaded guilty to charges of animal cruelty and were also banned from racing for three years and two months.
Stewards from Racing Victoria alleged that the use of blinkers and the blows from the plastic piping were intended to condition the horses to believe they would be shocked during a race if they didn't run faster.
Weir used the jigger seven times on Red Cardinal and nine times each on Yogi and Tosen Basil, the Victorian Racing Tribunal (VRT) heard.
Weir told stewards he regretted the incident.
'It's something that I wish I hadn't done, for sure,' he said.
Weir pleaded guilty to charges of using jiggers, three counts of animal cruelty and one count of improper and dishonourable conduct
'I was trying to get these horses to improve.
'I knew I was breaking the rules, I knew that, and it was a terrible decision.
'I understand all that, 100 per cent, but I was just trying to get them [the horses] to run to the best of their ability.
'I wasn't happy doing it [using the jigger] and was very uncomfortable, so that was the main reason that I stopped.'
The police video was shown in evidence at Warrnambool Magistrates Court in December 2022.
Weir was fined $36,000 after pleading guilty to animal abuse, but no criminal conviction was recorded.
He won the 2015 Melbourne Cup with 100/1 outsider Prince of Penzance after starting his racing career as a strapper before working his way up to employing nearly 200 people to work with more than 500 horses.
He is said to have won more than $130million in career prizemoney and trained runners such as Black Heart Bart, Humidor and Nature Strip.
