*This article first appeared in The Courier on July 30, 2014
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MASTER Ballarat trainer Darren Weir has secured his second-straight Victorian Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership.
A winning double at Caulfield on Saturday defended Weir his crown, before Sunday’s meeting at Geelong iced the cake.
The wins by Weir-trained two-year-old Starsi in the David Hopwood Handicap was followed by stablemate Refulgent's victory in the $150,000 VOBIS Gold Heath.
Weir also trained a winning treble at Morphettville on Saturday to take his overall season tally across Australia to 293 wins.
He landed two more successes at the transferred Geelong meeting on Sunday – with Strong Hand and Burning Front – to edge closer to a significant milestone.
He needs just five more winners before July 31 to reach 300 nation-wide this term.
Weir started the penultimate city meeting on Saturday four wins ahead of Peter Moody in the Victorian Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership race and Moody could only manage one win with Monteux, leaving Weir five clear on 77.
Moody had five runners entered for Geelong on Sunday - the final metropolitan meeting of the season - but two were scratched, gifting Weir the title.
Weir will finish the month with a host of premierships, including another Australian trainers’ title, which he also won last season.
He said while the current season’s campaign had exceeded expectations, the goal was to now claim “better races” in the future.
“We can’t really expect to win more races than we have (this season),” he said. “You’d be dreaming to think you could do that.
“So obviously we want to be competitive in better races. That’s the goal we’ve got now.”
Weir’s highlights on the Victorian metropolitan scene included two group 1 victories by stable star Trust In A Gust, who claimed the Sir Rupert Clarke Charity Cup and Toorak Handicap during September and October.
Placings in the Victorian Metropolitan Trainers’ Premiership saw Moody second, with David Hayes and Tom Dabernig third, Robert Smerdon fourth and Mick Price fifth.
Meanwhile, Ballarat Turf Club will be hopeful of maintaining two big jumps features that are yet to be rescheduled following a decision to transfer Sunday’s meeting to Geelong.
Racing Victoria stewards, in consultation with the club, made the call to move the program after inspecting the Sportsbet-Ballarat track on Saturday.
Stewards reported that the surface had, by then, received 71mm of rain during the week leading up to the races and believed with more wet weather forecast, it was unlikely the track would be in a suitable condition to host the meeting.
Six flat races were moved to Geelong, with the $250,000 Grand National Steeplechase and $100,000 JJ Houlahan Hurdle to be rescheduled to another venue.within the next fortnight.
It is likely that Ballarat will keep the two features and run them on Sunday, August 9. At this meeting, there is already three jumps events scheduled across the eight-race card, including two hurdles and a steeplechase.
A decision on the Grand National Steeplechase and JJ Houlahan Hurdle is expected to be made on Monday.
Ballarat will race again on August 27, where three more jumps races are on the program.