On the face of it the saga of the Melbourne Cup’s missing $464,000 jackpot is a simple tale of a bureaucratic stuff-up. But scratch the surface and you’ll find bankruptcies, court battles and a bitter dispute between old business partners – trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon, and the man that helped them buy 80-1 cup winner Knight’s Choice.
At stake is not just the $464,000 in cup winnings, but a claim the trainers still owe another $570,000 to the company they used to work for, Esprit Racing.
But a little digging suggests it’s all a tawdry mess – a simple story of plucky country horse trainers versus a government bureaucracy doesn’t even touch the edges. The racing industry might still style itself as the sport of kings, but it’s a business like any other – and the infighting over money is as bitter as it is anywhere else. Symons and Laxon are now suing Racing Victoria after their cut of the Melbourne Cup winnings was deposited into the bank account of Esprit – which they used to work for. It remained as their payment option with Racing Victoria. The trainers now operate under their own names, and have seemingly never given Victorian racing authorities their new details. The mess will play out in the Queensland Supreme Court.
Racing Victoria told Margin Call this week that it had tried to help the couple recover their money, but that ultimately it had “paid out all Melbourne Cup prizemoney as required, including to the bank account registered with us”.
But it could have been different. Symons and Melbourne accountant Michael Kirby are listed as the buyers of cup winner Knight’s Choice in 2021, paying $85,000 at a Gold Coast auction. Although Knight’s Choice was quickly sold on to current owner Cameron Bain, the touch of Melbourne Cup glory could also have cast its light on Kirby as one of the original owners. So what happened to the cash? Esprit Racing was sent into liquidation this week.
Curiously enough, late on Thursday Esprit’s sole director, Judith Hutchinson, filed documents with ASIC claiming Esprit is owed $569,875 by Laxon and Symons.
No cash was listed among the company’s asset, which also owes $903,861 to an unnamed business – but one which appears to share an address with Kirby’s accounting business in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee.
According to ASIC records, Kirby was only briefly a director and shareholder of Esprit, but remains the subject of Symon’s ire.
At the time Knight’s Choice was bought, Symons and Laxon worked for Esprit, founded by Kirby. Records show Kirby and Symons as the buyer of another horse in 2021, Mission of Love – which also won cash in Victoria’s Spring carnival, with the money also sent to Esprit’s account. All told, Margin Call is told that Symons and Laxon’s cut of Victorian racing money should have come to about $475,000.
So what happened?
Kirby wouldn’t comment on the debacle when contacted by Margin Call on Thursday, but told us to “research the history of the trainers”.
That includes a bankruptcy for Symons and Laxon, and a savage court judgment accusing the veteran trainers of lying when sued for ripping off owners in another horse training business.
When Kirby founded Esprit, Laxon and Symons had just lost a major court case with former close friend Frank Butler. Butler had a deal with Symons to buy horses, train them to the point where they could race, and then sell them on.
That, according to a 2014 court judgment, did not happen the way it should. In handing down his decision, Justice John Digby savaged the evidence given by both, saying they had given “false and inaccurate and unreliable evidence” to the court in their defence.
Butler was handed out a big settlement over the placement of 29 horses with Laxon and Symons training company, JSL Racing. When JSL went bust, shortly after, Butler claimed to be owed more than $930,000.
The court decision also sent both Laxon and Symons bankrupt. They only emerged in 2018, and it took Kirby’s help to keep them in the racing industry.
Because of their bankruptcies, Symons and Laxon were initially denied a training licence in Queensland. To get that reversed, documents show, Kirby was forced to give a personal guarantee against “any and all” liabilities racked up by the trainers in the future, through Esprit. Symons and Laxon were to remain employees of the company, and nothing more.
Symons has a different view of the way Kirby behaved during their time at Esprit and believes he and Laxon are owed money, rather than the other way round. What’s the truth? From the outside it’s almost impossible to say. A soured business relationship a decade ago isn’t necessarily a sign that Laxon and Symons are at fault in the current debacle. But if Kirby and Esprit are actually owed money by the pair, should they have handed back they cash? It’s all a mess.
But the glory of a Melbourne Cup victory at impossibly long odds will remain a part of the race’s legend forever. As for the money? We hope everyone ever associated with Knight’s Choice backed it in on the day, because the lawyers are now likely to get the lion’s share of anything else.
Nomad owners in sudden sale of $11m tumbledown mansion
Less than a year ago, Alan and Rebecca Yazbek forked out $11m for a tumbledown mansion. So, is it a cashflow problem or something else behind it being put up for sale again so soon?
PwC’s tax scandal leaves peers shy of donating to pollies
PwC’s scandalous tax leaks saga led to plenty of point scoring by both major parties but their enthusiasm for sinking the boot in has cost their election war chests.