Melbourne Cup hero Knight’s Choice likely to miss Queensland winter carnival

The continuing big wet in south-east Queensland has likely scuppered Doomben Cup and Q22 plans for Melbourne Cup champion Knight’s Choice, who may instead return to Victoria.

Melbourne Cup hero Knight’s Choice will almost certainly miss the Queensland winter carnival.

Co-trainer John Symons revealed that south-east Queensland’s ongoing big wet meant the Cup winner would most likely not compete at his home carnival.

Races like the Group 1 Doomben Cup and $1.2m Q22 had been on the agenda for the Queensland stayer, who shocked the world when scoring the Melbourne Cup as a $91 chance last November.

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Autumn plans to contest the All-Star Mile were derailed by a minor injury and now, the likelihood is that Knight’s Choice won’t be seen until the spring carnival.

“Our thinking at the moment is that we will wait for spring with him, there is a strong chance you won’t see him in the winter carnival,” Symons, who trains with his wife Sheila Laxon, said.

“He’s just hopeless on wet tracks and that’s why his form was so bad in Melbourne last spring up until his last two runs. He just couldn’t get a dry track.

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“It’s not upsetting our plans, the wet weather is just a bit of a pain in the arse.

“It does depend on what the weather is going to do in the next few weeks, but it’s just been so wet.

“I think we will just take him back to Melbourne.

“We will set a plan going through the races down there, probably weight-wise he would be better off doing that anyway.”

Sheila Laxon and John Symons with the Melbourne Cup trophy. Picture: Michael McInally

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Symons said the injury setback in autumn wasn’t major, but it was enough to scrap autumn plans.

“There were no ongoing issues. He clipped the inside of his fetlock with his other leg and had a bleed in the joint,” Symons said.

“We thought he would get it over easily, but at the same time he squashed a little ligament at the back of his fetlock joint.

“It all just got a bit inflamed, so we just wanted to let it settle down.”

Originally published as Melbourne Cup hero Knight’s Choice likely to miss Queensland winter carnival