Weir had trained 275 winners across Australia (86 in the Melbourne metropolitan area) before the weekend's racing, and most pundits expected that tally to grow by at least three, if not more, by the time the last in Adelaide had been run and won on Saturday.

But when the dust settled Weir could only add another two winners – the recent stable acquisition Kenjorwood at Sandown and Real Love in the group 3 Premiers Cup at Doomben – to his total.

Most trainers would be delighted with just one Saturday metropolitan winner, never mind a group race victor.

But such has been Weir's extraordinary record of success in the past couple of years that a two state metropolitan double can feel like an ordinary weekend – especially as his three shortest priced runners all bit the dust.

At Sandown the odds on chance Gingerboy was edged out in the Australian Hurdle by Arch Fire. The $1.70 favourite Voodoo Lad was beaten easily by a $13 shot, Casino Wizard, in Adelaide, while the horse with perhaps the biggest reputation of all, Raw Impulse, was sent off at around $1.60 in the listed McKell Cup at Randwick only to compound in the straight and miss a place behind Gai Waterhouse's all the way winner Ecuador.

For a yard that has created so many records in recent years, that is one – three odds-on favourites beaten in three different metropolitan venues on the one afternoon – that no one would have foreseen.

Not that the pragmatic Weir – very much a realist when it comes to the ups and downs of racing – would have lost too much sleep over it. He knows that horses are not machines, and that while most of his run to their ability level or regularly improve, not all will deliver on the day, no matter how confident connections might be.

He has not lost faith in Raw Impulse, the imported English galloper who has created such an impression in a short time with easy wins at Moonee Valley and Caulfield, twice, in the past two months.

The formerly English trained son of Mafki was being touted as a potential spring star after that and a group 1 horse in the making, but Weir is trying to bring him along slowly: while many were counselling a tilt at the group 1 Doomben Cup with him last week, the trainer opted for what looked like a less exacting task in Sydney.

Raw Impulse ran well enough to give Weir reason to believe that he can be a spring player – he is not sure, however, that at this stage of his development the horse can be a contender at the highest level.

"He wasn't good enough, he simply wasn't good enough. He had every possible chance but it will bring the horse on great," the trainer says.

"Taking on those old seasoned tough horses, they are hard to beat. He was way under the odds for me, I was still happy with him, he will end up a good horse, its just going to be a work in progress.

"It wouldn't worry me if he had another run, I might pick something  a bit easier up in Brisbane. There might be a country cup, the Caloundra Cup, something like that off the top of my head."

Weir believes that Raw Impulse lacks the maturity required to take on such tough campaigners as he will meet in big races in the spring, and that further interstate travel could bring him along considerably.

"I would like to give him another trip away to make him grow up a bit. Then he will just back off. At this stage I don't think he's a big player in the spring, but he might join in a bit later, something like the Sandown Classic would be a good race for him, he will be a good horse eventually."

Real Love, his Premiers Cup winner, has already proved herself a good horse since she came over from Western Australia this season to join Weir's Ballarat team.

On Saturday she won well from her front running stablemate Puccini, and she is now set for the Brisbane Cup, a $300,000 group 2 race on Stradbroke Day, June 11, at Eagle Farm.

Weir said that Puccini, a New Zealand Derby winner as a three-year-old, would back-up next week where a race like the 2200 metre Eagle Farm Cup looks ideal.

"The back-up will be great for him. The two weeks is ideal for Real Love, but the back-up is great for him, he's a big heavy bull.

"The owner has been very keen to ride him forward, but just under circumstances we haven't been able to do it [before Saturday, when he made the running only to be run down by Real Love].

"He couldn't have been forward at the Gold Coast. At Mornington we planned to be forward but just couldn't, but finally he was able to get into a position where the owner wanted him, so he will come on from that."