Melbourne Cup-winning trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon are finally seeing a turn of fortune.

The training duo has experienced a challenging twelve months with Knight’s Choice, who has only competed in four races since his celebrated 2024 Melbourne Cup triumph.

Initially, a strangles infection sidelined the Cup champion from defending his title the previous year, and subsequently, damp tracks in Queensland throughout the winter dashed any aspirations for Knight’s Choice to recapture his winning form.

Following a period of clear weather in Melbourne recently, Knight’s Choice managed to display a hint of his former prowess, securing a win in a jump-out at Caulfield Heath on Wednesday morning.

This event prompted Symons to state, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen him trial better than that’.

“We couldn’t be happier with where he is at,” Symons commented.

“He’s had a mixed way of life since he won the Cup.

“He’s always had the ability to do it, (but he’s a) wet track duffer, (but) dry track, like today, you see what he can do.”

Symons relayed that jockey Dylan Dunn observed that Knight’s Choice could have decisively defeated his rivals with greater ease.

Knight’s Choice must now qualify for contention in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups this year, having missed the spring racing season last year.

“Three months we were locked up for,” Symons recounted.

“We couldn’t do anything with him, and he actually got strangles and was the last horse to get a clearance and he didn’t get cleared until December.

“He’s back now, on all cylinders. We were happy with him up in Queensland, but it just kept on raining.

“His work was compromised up there, but the good thing is he’s had that time away in the sun.

“I don’t think I’ve seen him trial better than that. Dylan said he could have put them away easily, so I’m pretty happy with where we’ve got him.

“I wouldn’t expect too much from his first couple of runs, but after that I would expect to see what he can do.”

Symons mentioned that he and Laxon would return home to devise a racing strategy.

“We’ll look for a mile race, wherever that may be, but it’s probably got to be a quality handicap or a weight-for-age race,” Symons advised.

“We’ve entered him for the Caulfield Cup, and we’ll probably look to take a similar path as the one we took in the year he won the Melbourne Cup.”

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