Melbourne Cup champion Knight’s Choice returning home for Queensland winter carnival

Melbourne Cup champion Knight’s Choice will now target the Queensland winter carnival after his Melbourne autumn campaign was aborted.

Melbourne Cup winner Knight's Choice missed the All-Star Mile with injury and will now return to Queensland. Picture: Reg Ryan/Racing Photos via Getty Images

The Melbourne Cup champion is coming home as his trainers target Queensland’s winter carnival for the return of Knight’s Choice.

John Symons and Sheila Laxon had initially earmarked Knight’s Choice to contest last Saturday’s All-Star Mile at Flemington, won by Tom Kitten, but an untimely injury led to his withdrawal from the $2.5m feature.

The All-Star Mile was meant to lead into the Group 1 $1.5m Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 29 but when Knight’s Choice bruised his fetlock in the paddock at Macedon Lodge in Victoria early this month, the husband-and-wife team’s plans were thrown into disarray.

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Instead the five-year-old gelding will likely head to the Group 1 $1.5m Doomben Cup (2000m) on May 24 and then into the Group 2 $1.2m Q22 (2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 15.

Symons and Laxon are eager to follow a similar path to last year, which culminated in Knight’s Choice scoring a stunning victory as a $91 longshot in the Melbourne Cup last November.

“We’ll look at the Melbourne Cup and work backwards to see what we have to do,” Symons told Racenet on Monday.

“If that means he has to come to Melbourne and race in the early part of the spring then that’s what he might have to do.

“We’d like to get him back to the Q22 and maybe the Doomben Cup. They’re the races we’ll target as weight-for-age where he won’t get weighted out of it.

“Then we’ll bring him back to Melbourne and do what we did last year - run him in the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup.”

Sheila Laxon and John Symons have changed plans for Knight’s Choice. Picture: Michael McInally

Symons said the plan was always to give Knight’s Choice a light autumn campaign before sending him home to the Sunshine State.

“We’ve only missed those two runs (All-Star Mile and Australian Cup) which is not really concerning at this stage,” he said.

“Everything looks good with him. It’s just a matter of taking a bit of pressure off it (his hoof) so the swelling comes down.

“He just had fluid around his joint, he never got sore. Looking at him, you’d take him to the races but he’s too nice a horse and too good a horse to take any risks.”

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The James Cummings-trained Tom Kitten stormed home to edge out superstar Mr Brightside in the All-Star Mile last Saturday in a race pattern which Symons said would not have suited Knight’s Choice.

“They didn’t go all that fast early and sprinted home. He’d be better if that went quicker and he could come at them,” a pragmatic Symons said.

“To be honest we never really thought he could win the All-Star Mile but it was a stepping stone to the Australian Cup where we thought he’d be competitive at the 2000m.

“It just hasn’t worked out. Maybe we still could’ve got him to the Australian Cup but he would’ve gone there first-up and it just doesn’t work.

“It’s best to give him a little break now, get him home and reassess where we’re at.”

Symons revealed last year’s Caloundra Cup champion Mission Of Love, also based at Macedon Lodge for the autumn carnival, would next run in the Group 2 $300,000 Sunline Stakes at The Valley on March 22 before the mare was aimed toward the $2m Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) at Randwick on April 12.

Like Knight’s Choice, Mission Of Love would then return to Queensland for the winter carnival.

Originally published as Melbourne Cup champion Knight’s Choice returning home for Queensland winter carnival