HOPES DASHED FOR A KNIGHT'S CHOICE CUP REPEAT

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 1, 2025

It has been something of a celebrity tour, both nationally and overseas, for the 2024 Melbourne Cup winning team of trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon and jockey Robbie Dolan over the last the last ten months, but the latest news out of Macedon Lodge means that a Cup title defence by Knight’s Choice is no longer in play.

Knight’s Choice is one of a number of horses currently in lock down at Macedon Lodge following an outbreak of strangles at that location, an unwanted development which has left the John Symons and Sheila Laxon training partnership with no option but to pull the plug on Knight’s Choice’s attempt to target back-to-back appearances in the Melbourne Cup with any hope of picking up the pieces of his Melbourne Cup preparation now dashed.

Coming down from that pinnacle of success in 2024, in which things went so well, by contrast, 2025 has been a year in which few pieces have fallen into place for the son of Extreme Choice.

The call made by connections to bypass the Queensland Winter Carnival because of the on-going heavy racing surfaces at the time because, as Symons stated at the time … “he is hopeless on wet tracks” was a perfectly reasonable one, but, with the Melbourne plans for Knight’s Choice falling into disarray in Victoria through no fault of their own, last year’s Melbourne Cup winner’s career has basically been left in no-man’s land for the immediate future.

The horses welfare comes first though, with Knight Choice’s recovery being the point of focus right now.
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Meanwhile, it has been reported that a long-standing dispute over the payment of prize-money from last year’s Melbourne Cup win has been resolved.

Symons and Laxon did not receive their prize-money percentage as expected from Racing Victoria when it was paid into an account by that the trainer’s no longer used or had access to.

Today’s reports indicate that Symons and Laxon have stopped legal action against Racing Victoria and have reached a settlement which includes a non-disclosure agreement.

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