A MELBOURNE CUP WINNER RETURNS

By Graham Potter | Friday, April 24, 2026

It has been a long road back for the 2024 Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice who will have only his second start in the seventeen months since that famous victory on the first Tuesday in November when he lines up for the Listed Brisbane Handicap at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

While that lack of action could be a concern, Sheila Laxon, who trains Knight’s Choice in partnership with John Symons, has pushed away any temptation to consider ‘what might have been’ and is firmly focussed on finding out what the future holds for the son of Extreme Choice rather than looking back at a period that represented the most frustrating time she has experienced in her training career.

The Melbourne Cup win was followed by a draining battle for Laxon and Symons to secure their prize-money percentage when the money was paid into the wrong account.

In March 2025 Knight’s Choice was ruled out of an Autumn Campaign when sustaining an injury to a fetlock.

Then after one run in early September 2025, Knight’s Choice had to be quarantined at Macedon Lodge after a case of a strangles breakout at the training centre … a situation which left Knight’s Choice short of preparation for his scheduled defence of his Melbourne Cup title and which ultimately led to a complete abandonment of his participation in the 2025 Spring Carnival.

So not only a long road, but a bumpy one.

Knight’s Choice had two jump outs earlier this month in preparation for his return to race action.

The Melbourne Cup winner was ridden by Dylan Dunn in both of those jump-outs and Dunn will be in the saddle on Saturday.

The 1600m trip is half the distance Knight’s Choice covered when winning the Melbourne Cup and can be realistically viewed as a pipe-opener to a Winter Carnival campaign … but four of his six career wins have come over 1600m, albeit that was a lot earlier in his career. He has, however, yet to win first-up.

Robbie Dolan, who partnered Knight’s Choice in that dramatic Melbourne Cup boilover … Knight’s Choice was a $91 chance … is still out of action, recovering from injuries he suffered in a fall at the Sunshine Coast in January.