Trainer Sheila Laxon eyes 2024 Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with Knight’s Choice

Sheila Laxon has claimed the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double before and she is aiming to turn back time and do it again in 2024.

Melbourne, November 6, 2001. Sheila Laxon trainer of Melbourne Cup winning Ethereal ridden by jockey Scott Seamer celebrates the win at Flemington Racecourse today. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING

Sheila Laxon became the first female trainer to score the famed Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double and she wants to do it again in 2024.

Laxon, who rewrote racing’s history books with Ethereal in 2001, is on the trail of another slice of racing folklore.

She and training partner John Symons are planning to deploy Knight’s Choice, whose owners turned down a $2.3m offer to sell earlier in his career, on a Caulfield and Melbourne Cup mission in the spring.

Sunshine Coast-based Laxon now has reason to dream big after Knight’s Choice finished runner-up behind $1.2m Q22 winner Fawkner Park on Stradbroke Handicap day at Eagle Farm last Saturday.

Fawkner Park smashes them in the Q22! 🔥

He books a ticket into the Caulfield Cup! 🎟️@[e-mail]/IyhIPBL1Vk

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) June 15, 2024

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Fawkner Park is now the $13 favourite for the Caulfield Cup.

Admittedly, Knight’s Choice finished second as a $91 chance in the Q22 and was beaten almost four lengths by Fawkner Park.

But Laxon is booking in Knight’s Choice to stay at the famed Macedon Lodge property in Victoria during the spring as she aims to qualify Knight’s Choice for the big Cups races.

“I am looking at the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups for him. Why not do the double, I’ve done it before?” Laxon said.

“We will be looking at any stepping stones he can take to qualify for those big races. The horse who beat him on Saturday (Fawkner Park) is actually favourite for the Caulfield Cup now.

“I have talked to Macedon Lodge and we can take him down there when he is ready to go down.”

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Without A Fight won the Q22 in 2023 before famously storming to Caulfield and Melbourne Cup glory in the spring carnival.

Sheila Laxon is daring to dream of Caulfield and Melbourne Cups with Knight's Choice. Picture: Grant Peters, Trackside Photography.

Knight’s Choice had been nominated for Saturday’s Ipswich Cup but has not accepted in the race – with the remaining winter goal the Listed Caloundra Cup over 2400m on the Sunshine Coast early next month.

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Knight’s Choice will be spelled after that, with a view to priming him to try to qualify him for a blockbuster Cups campaign.

Laxon feels the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup would not be an issue for the relaxed gelding.

“He is just such an economical galloper, you would think the distance would never be a problem for him,” Laxon said.

“I think he would get 3200m on his ear, he is just so laid back and he just lobs around.”

Laxon took Knight’s Choice to Sydney last spring but nothing went right in his races and he raced without luck.

He finished 13th in the $10m Golden Eagle as a $201 shot – finishing 4½ lengths off the winner Obamburumai at a distance well short of his best.

“He had a luckless campaign in Sydney and that was a bit of a confidence buster, but it wasn’t his fault as he just had no luck,” Laxon insisted.

“He’s been flying on the track ever since.”

Originally published as Trainer Sheila Laxon eyes 2024 Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with Knight’s Choice