Boom sprinter Nature Strip and high-profile colts Extra Brut and Ringerdingding will miss their scheduled first-up runs after being scratched from Caulfield races by stewards.
Racing Victoria stewards have withdrawn all horses entered for races over the weekend trained by Darren Weir and Jarrod McLean after imposing an interim order until the two face an adjourned show cause hearings on Monday.
Weir had 11 horses entered for Saturday’s Caulfield meeting which features the Group Three Manfred Stakes and Listed W J Adams Stakes, while nine of the stable’s runners were taken out of races at The Valley on Friday night.
Weir has been charged with possession of three electronic devices known as jiggers capable of affecting the performance of a horse, refusing to give evidence at a stewards inquiry on Thursday and for conduct prejudicial to the image of racing.
McLean, who runs Weir’s Warrnambool operation, has also been charged with possession of a jigger and failing to give evidence to stewards.
The Weir-trained Nature Strip was scheduled to run in Saturday’s Adams Stakes (1000m) for which he was the odds-on favourite.
Group One Victoria Derby winner Extra Brut and his Group Two Sandown Guineas-winning stablemate Ringerdingding were set to resume in the Manfred Stakes (1200m) for three-year-olds for their first starts since last year’s spring carnival.
There are already reports of horses being transferred to leading trainers Chris Waller, Lindsay Park and Ciaron Maher Racing.
WEIR RUNNERS SCRATCHED FROM SATURDAY’S CAULFIELD MEETING
RACE 1: Got The Goss
RACE 2: Crafty Devil
RACE 4: Prima, Calibration
RACE 6: Thunder Cloud , Mount Kilcoy (was $3.80 favourite)
RACE 7 (W J Adams Stakes): Nature Strip (was $1.50 favourite)
RACE 8 (Manfred Stakes): Ringerdingding, Extra Brut
RACE 9: Mantastic, Casino Fourteen
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