$20,050 bill
Gordon was living and working with Taige Weir, assisting his partner with her fledgling pre-training business, when he took his willingness to help a step too far.
An accomplished horseman who breaks in young stock for Weir at their Ballarat property, charging $2500-$3000 an animal, he attended the William Inglis Yearling Sales in Oaklands with his girlfriend on March 4 this year.
While there, he registered his name with the auction house, bid successfully on the 12-month-old Doubtland filly and then used his bank account to settle the $20,050 bill – $14,000 for the horse and $6050 in fees.
Unbeknown to Gordon, he was being watched by Racing Victoria integrity liaison officer Frank De Rango.
“I followed them into the auditorium and was in close proximity as Gordon and Weir stood at the rear of the auditorium, adjacent to the auctioneer’s box,” De Rango said in evidence.
“I then witnessed Gordon raise his hand and place a bid on lot 644. The bid was successful, and the relevant horse was knocked down to Gordon.”
Taige Weir has ambitions to become a trainer.Credit: Jason South
De Rango, who attended the sales in a regulatory role relating to ownership and syndication, then tipped off Racing Victoria stewards.
They charged Gordon with breaking AR 116 – “a jockey is not permitted to own, take a lease or have any interest in a horse” – which carries a mandatory two-year disqualification. Stewards offered him a three-month ban if he agreed to an early guilty plea.
Weir’s horse
When stewards first approached Gordon on March 26, he claimed he was only trying to help his girlfriend.
He said she wanted to buy a horse to kickstart her training career, but because she was short of funds it was “agreed we would have a look together, but I would purchase the horse with her”.
Paperwork showed the Doubtland filly was not signed over to Weir until March 25 – three weeks after it was bought at the Inglis sales. Gordon was listed by Inglis as the “purchaser”.
But Gordon insisted the horse was always Weir’s “to pre-train and do whatever she wants with it”.
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“Maybe I should have transferred Taige the money, and she could have put her name down,” Gordon told stewards. “I just didn’t think anything of it.”
Weir agreed. She said Gordon bid at the auction on her behalf because she “gets nervous”.
“He obviously signed for it because the money was coming out of his bank account because he was helping me out,” she told stewards.
“I obviously didn’t know there was a rule involved, and I don’t think Will did, either. Looking back, we wish that I had just done it myself.”
Gordon pleaded not guilty to the ownership charge, his legal counsel barrister Damian Sheales told the tribunal, because he was only ever acting as Weir’s agent.
Sheales said Gordon always intended “that he would be repaid or reimbursed by Ms Weir”.
Trying to help
Racing Victoria’s integrity department wanted Gordon disqualified.
“Irrespective of whatever arrangement or understanding he may have had with his partner, the fact is, he on this day purchased this horse and was the owner,” legal counsel Marwan El-Asmar said on behalf of stewards.
“This idea of a jockey appearing as an agent at an auction and bidding completely undermines the integrity of the industry. And that’s why it doesn’t happen. I’ve never heard of a jockey bidding at an auction. Never.”
But the tribunal found that Gordon was acting as Weir’s agent at all relevant times.
Will Gordon rides in this year’s May carnival at Warrnambool.Credit: Getty Images
“That period [of agency] embraces registering for the sale, bidding and purchasing the horse,” VRT chairman Judge John Bowman said.
“As you said when interviewed by the stewards: ‘I was just trying to help my partner … when she didn’t have the funds. I don’t see how that damaged anyone or anything’.”
The tribunal dismissed the charge, pursuant to AR 116, against Gordon.
Gordon pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of being involved in the buying of thoroughbred bloodstock (AR 118), and while stewards again called for a three-month disqualification, the tribunal settled on a $2500 fine.
Fit and proper
Whether Gordon ever rides in a race for his partner or for his prospective father-in-law remains to be seen.
Taige Weir is yet to apply for a trainer’s licence. Her father cannot reapply until the eve of next year’s spring carnival. But even then, he has hurdles to overcome.
Weir, the winner of the 2015 Melbourne Cup with Prince Of Penzance, must prove to the Racing Victoria board that he is a fit and proper person to re-enter the training ranks.
A precedent has already been set. Late last month, the RV board rejected former stable hand Tyson Kermond’s application to ride track work again after serving more than five years’ suspension for his part in the Weir case.
Kermond was told by the RV board he did not meet the requirements of its “suitability policy”, which was adopted in 2019.
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