Melbourne Cup champ Knight’s Choice earns ticket into next month’s All-Star Mile at Flemington

Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice was set to begin his campaign this week but his return will be delayed after he was assured of a start in the All-Star Mile.

Knight's Choice will become the first Melbourne Cup champion to contest the All-Star Mile at Flemington. Picture: Racing Photos

Knight’s Choice will become the first Melbourne Cup champion to compete in the lucrative All-Star Mile at Flemington.

Trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon confirmed on Wednesday that their star gelding had been accepted into the elite 16-horse field for the 1600m race on March 8.

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They had initially nominated Knight’s Choice for a 1615m Open Handicap at Doomben this Saturday but decided not to accept upon hearing the news that the Cup champ would start his autumn campaign in the $2.5m All-Star Mile, won last year by brilliant frontrunner Pride Of Jenni.

“We don’t want to flatten him, we want to keep him fresh for the All-Star Mile,” Symons told Racenet on Wednesday.

Knight’s Choice, with a rating of 110, is 20th in the order of entry for the All-Star Mile and assured of a start given that superstars Via Sistina, Pride Of Jenni and Apollo Stakes winner Fangirl won’t be contesting the race.

Symons and Laxon are clearly happy to race again in Melbourne, despite a widely publicised legal battle against Racing Victoria to demand their $464,640 cut of prizemoney from winning the Cup last November as a $91 roughie.

Their Cup winnings were deposited into an old bank account for Esprit Racing, the company the husband-and-wife trainers used to work for.

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The money has still not been passed on to Symons and Laxon.

“I’d like to be able to put the saga behind me but it just seems to be dragging on,” Symons said on Wednesday.

“I just want it to go away and let us concentrate on the horse.

“We’ve taken our Cup everywhere, including New Zealand, and given it the best run it has ever had in its life.

“That’s what we’re about, promoting racing and taking it to the schools and everything else.

“To have this dampen it for us, it’s soul-destroying.”

Melbourne Cup-winning co-trainer Sheila Laxon and jockey Robbie Dolan with Knight’s Choice during Champions Day at Flemington last November 9. Picture: Getty Images

Symons said Knight’s Choice would head to Macedon Lodge in Victoria this weekend to prepare for the All-Star Mile, with the $2.5m Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington also marked on the calendar for the gutsy stayer.

But while confident Knight’s Choice would be competitive in the All-Star Mile, Symons tempered expectations about the five-year-old’s imminent return to the racetrack.

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“You’ve got to remember he’s not a Winx but he’s a very good little horse and obviously he’s very good at 3200m,” the co-trainer said.

“I think he’ll really be competitive in those two races (All-Star Mile and Australian Cup) we’ve got picked out for him.

“Obviously it’s a bit short of the distances where we know he can really excel at.

“But he’s that bright and he’s happy that we’re bringing him to Melbourne and back to the races, that’s what it’s all about. At this stage everything’s going lovely.”

The first four wins for Knight’s Choice, a son of Extreme Choice, came in races around the 1600m mark, including the Group 3 Winx Guineas (1600m).

Symons tried him in the rich 2023 Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill but it was “too short for him” and he finished 13th out of 17 runners.

“Then we realised we needed to aim him at a Group 1 at that top end - we didn’t know it was going to be the Melbourne Cup but that’s the way it worked out,” he said.

Knight’s Choice placed fifth in the $500,000 Group 3 Bendigo Cup last October before his stunning Cup victory with jockey Robbie Dolan on board.