Weir was at the Darwin Cup meeting celebrating a friend's 50th birthday but said the loudest cheer of the party came while watching a race thousands of kilometres away.

"There's 20,000 people here and there was 20 of us running around and cartwheeling," he laughed from Darwin on Monday.

"My son and Megan (apprentice jockey Megan Taylor) went to Forbes and we watched it here, it was unbelievable."

Tea Clipper, an $11 chance, powered home down the straight to win by the narrowest of margins from Greg Ryan onboard a fast finishing Sooner Or Later ($4 favourite) while Steakandbearnaise ($4.20) also produced a storming run home to finish third.

It marked a much happier Forbes Cup appearance for a Weir galloper with the Tumut-based trainer's last visit to the track ending in drama when Universal Pack fell in the 2013 running of the Cup.

The win was also Taylor's first win for Weir since joining Weir's stable about a month ago while it was Tea Clipper's seventh victory in 43 starts and takes the grey gelding's career earnings to just short of $90,000.

"I spoke to Megan this morning and said last start he had at Wagga he got stuck five wide so I said just go back and let him roll into it," Weir said.

"He's got a good sprint but it's best to just let him roll into it."

The race was evenly contested virtually the whole journey with the field well spread across the track at the top of the straight.

The feature event of the day began in cold conditions but it was a hot start with the likes of Spirit Mania ($6), Zero To Ten ($5) and Nriangi ($11) setting the early pace.

Tea Clipper settled second last early on with only Steakandbearnaise further back but at the 800m mark Taylor made her move.

At the top of the straight she was four wide and then powered to the lead with the race seemingly won.

But both Sooner Or Later and Steakandbearnaise came from even wider and deeper in the field to ensure there was a thrilling finish for the crowd.

"We were pretty confident, I came up here on Saturday and probably made about 101 phone calls saying he needed a walk or a feed and asking how he was going so the win will probably pay for the phone bill," Weir joked

"He's an out and out mile or 2000m runner and he finished second in a 1000 and second and fourth in 1300s and then he went a mile with Simon Miller, who rides most of my horses, but got caught five wide and on a heavy track that takes it out of you."

The day was also a successful one for Cowra jockey Mathew Cahill, who recorded a winning double, while it was even more special for Greg Ryan.

The champion jockey took out the first race of the day onboard Missing to move level with legendary hoop Jack Thompson on the list of winning rides.

The pair have both recorded 3322 wins with only Robert Thompson, no relation to Jack, further ahead with more than 4000 victories.