Knight’s Choice will not be competing in this Saturday’s All-Star Mile, and his autumn campaign is now uncertain after the Melbourne Cup winner was diagnosed with an injury on Monday.

Co-trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon confirmed the five-year-old had suffered a leg setback, forcing connections to send him for a spell.

“We are disappointed to advise that Knight’s Choice has, unfortunately, sustained a knock to his fetlock and the subsequent filling indicates that it is best to put him aside for a few weeks to allow the oedema to subside,” Symons Laxon Racing said in a statement on social media.

As a result, Knight’s Choice will be absent from both the All-Star Mile (1600m) this Saturday and the Australian Cup (2000m) scheduled for March 29.

Both prestigious Group 1 events, each worth $2.5 million, were set to take place at Flemington—the track where Knight’s Choice stunned punters by winning the Melbourne Cup at $91 odds last November.

Connections are now shifting focus to the Queensland Winter Carnival, with the $1.2m Group 2 Q22 (2200m) still on the radar as a potential target race.