Melbourne Cup trailblazer Sheila Laxon becomes a legend with second win in Australia’s greatest staying race

Sheila Laxon was distraught days ago when one of her runners was scratched from the Melbourne, but now she has a second triumph from two attempts.

Sheila Laxon went from Melbourne Cup trailblazer to legend in just under 200 seconds at Flemington on Tuesday.

Laxon was the first female trainer to officially train a winner of the race that stops a nation when her wonder mare Ethereal won the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in 2001.

On Tuesday she and her training and life partner John Symons pulled off one of the great training performances, when Knight’s Choice – the stayer they always believed in, even if plenty of others hadn’t, staved off the Japanese raider Warp Speed to win the $8m Melbourne Cup.

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Wearing a gold pendant containing some of Ethereal’s hair, and with confidence brimming about the firm track for their wet-track duffer, Laxon told Symons on the way back from the stables on Tuesday morning that they were about to win the Cup.

She was convinced it would happen, and she knew her jockey – the Irish-born, now Queensland-based hoop Robbie Dolan – was going to give their horse the perfect transit.

“You can sing to us all tonight,” a beaming Laxon said to Dolan, who appeared on The Voice two years ago, after their success.

It was a different story last Friday when Laxon was on the verge of tears at the Carbine Club luncheon when the stable’s other Cup runner Mission Of Love was ruled out on vet’s advice.

She and Symons figured they had two horses capable of giving her a second Cup as a trainer.

In the end, they only needed one.

“This is unbelievable,” Laxon said.

“This brings back some incredible memories.”

“Do you know what’s great? I love it being done for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it and Robbie’s Australian now as well. So I’m thrilled to win the Cup. It’s the People’s Cup and that’s what it’s all about.”

An emotional Sheila Laxon after the win of Knight’s Choice in the Melbourne Cup. Picture: Picture: Jason Edwards

• Owners’ $2.3m punt finally pays off with Cup success

Incredibly, Laxon is unbeaten in Melbourne Cup as a trainer, having only had two starters – Ethereal and Knight’s Choice – for a perfect strike rate.

This was a Melbourne Cup against the odds when a horse bought for only $85,000, out of star sprinter Extreme Choice, and from a Sunshine Coast training base that has just 23 horses in work took and beat some of the biggest stables in Australia … and indeed the world.

To make it even better, the owners knocked back a $2.3m offer from Hong Kong after Knight’s Choice won the Winx Guineas in July last year.

Laxon told the owners at the time that they had to seriously consider selling the horse, even though they knew how good he was.

“The owners knocked it back,” she said.

“We said ‘sell him’ and he (Cameron Bain) said: ‘No, Dad gets so much pleasure out of it’.”

It was a salient decision. Knight’s Choice had won $632,000 before Tuesday.

He has now won $5.8m.

There was a touch of symmetry about it about Laxon’s 2024 success with Symons.

Her second Cup came on a day when six female trainers had horses in the race, and a record four female jockeys competed, including Jamie Kah who finished third on Okita Soushi.

Laxon wore a lucky horseshoe pendant around her neck to the races on Tuesday with a link to their past, and held onto it at stages of her press conference after the race.

“My daughter got me this pendant for my birthday, and it has Ethereal’s hair in it,” she said.

“I thought I would wear it today.”

• Right choices lead to fairytale Melbourne Cup win

In the end, they didn’t need luck – only a trouble-free transit, and a dry track, which was always going to be the case.

“We were on weather watch,” Laxon said of the nerves that a wet track would end Knight’s Choice’s chances.

“He is hopeless on wet tracks. Initially there was a bit of rain forecast and I was saying: ‘Dry, dry, dry’. Thankfully, we got the track that we wanted in the end.

“I didn’t know how good he (Knight’s Choice) might be, but he showed us.”

Asked about her magical Cup formula, Laxon said the fact that they had been able to train Knight’s Choice out of Mount Macedon – where Ethereal was also prepared for the 2001 race – was a bonus.

“I suppose in 2001, I really wasn’t expecting that to happen,” she said.

“It was actually a real relief when she (Ethereal) crossed the line, I wasn’t sure whether I had been training her correctly.

“And I know John, when he came down here, was worrying about doing the same thing, Macedon is fantastic.

“It was great to see that sort of training come to fore, he is by a sprinting sire … and if you train them to relax and travel, they can win races like this.

“He switches off in races and goes to sleep, if you do that you conserve all the energy and you can outsprint those stayers and if you can do that.’

“Macedon really allows horses to do that.”

Sheila Laxon was all smiles after the win. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Laxon said she had experienced the highs and lows of being involved with horses over her lifetime, including a horrific fall the year after Ethereal’s triumph.

She was told she would never ride again, but not even the doctors could stop her.

Despite spending Christmas 2002 in hospital after the fall, and being told she risked more complications if she continued to ride trackwork or equestrian events, Laxon made it back.

“My leg came out of my hip socket and got stuck in my pelvis socket, and they took about nine hours to actually try and get it out,” she recalled.

“In the end, they put screws and bolts and everything else in to put it back together.”

Another near miss a couple of years ago saw her eventually retire from riding, but she still misses it.

• Dolan in full voice on Melbourne Cup stage

“I was showjumping and had another fall a couple of years ago,” she said.

“I thought ‘I’ve been lucky, I don’t need to do it anymore’. But I do miss it.”

Laxon and Symons moved from Victoria to Queensland almost a decade ago with the intention to retire.

But some early wins and good support from owners, as well as their competitive streak in chasing more success, kept them going … and going.

At the 2021 Gold Coast Yearling Sales, Symons bought three horses, with two of them being Knight’s Choice ($85,000) and Mission Of Love ($120,000), who until last Friday was still in Melbourne Cup contention until being ruled out.

“It’s so special to go to a yearling sale and buy a horse for $85,000, nurture him, and come through to this pinnacle,” Symons said.

“I think I bought three yearlings that year. Mission and this bloke and another one. To think they were both going to run in the Melbourne Cup. It’s a dream come true.”

They could be back again next year.

Training duo’s epic journey

Brad Waters

A former painter from Seymour and a one-time bus driver born in Wales pulled off one of the great Melbourne Cup heists with Knight’s Choice.

Sheila Laxon had already won the Melbourne Cup with the mighty mare Ethereal in 2001 but her life and training partner John Symons had to wait 40 years to experience the thrill.

Symons got his trainer’s licence in 1980, at first combining training his team with running a painting business before turning to racing full-time in 1984.

Symons had a few city performers before accepting businessman Kurt Stern’s offer to become the first resident trainer at the Macedon Lodge complex.

The move was a success but an inspired half-hour period in Sydney sent Symons into the stratosphere when he paid $9000 for Bel Esprit and $22,000 for Macedon Lady.

Sheila Laxon celebrates with jockey Robbie Dolan and training partner John Symons. Picture: Reg Ryan/Racing Photos via Getty Images

The pair went on to win three Group 1 races and more than $2.5m in stakes. Bel Esprit went on to sire the champion mare Black Caviar.

Symons met Laxon when she lodged Ethereal at Macedon Lodge in her famous 2001 spring campaign.

Laxon, who took up jobs like bus driving and office work before heading to New Zealand to gain her jockey’s licence, also won the Group 1 Queensland Oaks and The BMW with the outstanding stayer.

Laxon spent 18 months recovering from a fall in 2002 before the duo eventually became training partners in 2006, starting at Seymour before the couple moved to the Sunshine Coast a decade later.

“We’ve jelled from day one,” Symons said.

“We thought it would probably slip through our fingers, but to be able to come back and do this, it’s just fantastic.”

Knight’s Choice was Symons and Laxon’s 297th, and most important winner of their partnership.

Originally published as Melbourne Cup trailblazer Sheila Laxon becomes a legend with second win in Australia’s greatest staying race