Knight’s Choice in a major Cup boilover
Long shot gives Laxon 2nd Melbourne Cup win, Irish reality star jockey Dolan a first
The old cliche that the Melbourne Cup stops a nation was given a different spin at its 164th edition at Flemington on Nov 5 when Knight’s Choice, a horse that had eluded most calculations, also left a nation numb with shock.
All week, the market had been skewed towards movers and shakers like Buckaroo, Vauban, or the “next best” cluster encompassing the likes of Zardozi, Land Legend, Absurde, and even overnight dark horses, UK raiders Onesmoothoperator and Sea King after late wins in lead-up races like the Geelong Cup and Bendigo Cup.
In a field of 23, inevitably, some in the A$8.56 million (S$7.44 million) Group 1 race (3,200m) would have to “finish at the rear”.
Knight’s Choice, an obscure Queensland raider, was one of those. He was an also-ran in his warm-up races, such as the Caulfield Cup and Turnbull Stakes.
Even a last-start closing fifth in the Bendigo Cup (2,400m) or his part-trainer Sheila Laxon boasting a Melbourne Cup win on her CV, Ethereal in 2001, were still not redeeming points to many.
Such was the Extreme Choice – a sprinting sire to add further improbability to an eventual win – five-year-old’s anonymity that he was not even noticed in the first 3,000m of the staying fest, buried away at the rear of the field.
It was only in the last furlong, after Japan’s Warp Speed (Akira Sugawara) collared Okita Soushi (Jamie Kah) that a splash of pink and lime was noticed flashing on the inside, Knight’s Choice.
The $594 (on the Singapore tote) shot beat Warp Speed by a short head, but it would only be after pushing the rewind button that most would draw a better appreciation of the quality of the win from the ducking-and-weaving run off an untenable position.
From the silent Flemington crowd of 91,168 racegoers, only a handful were revelling, namely Laxon and her partner John Symons, as well as Irish jockey Robbie Dolan – ironically better known for making some noise from his vocal cords as a former The Voice Australia singer than his mastery in the saddle.
“Pinch me, I think I’m dreaming. I just don’t know what to say,” he said, unable to process the fact a boy from County Kildare had just won his first Melbourne Cup at his first try.
“I’ll be singing for the rest of my life after that.”
Dolan, 28, has only been riding in Australia for eight years, and though competent in Brisbane where he finished ninth in the 2023-2024 premiership, he is not one of the flashier names associated with such a global event.
Laxon, the wife of the late nine-time Singapore champion trainer Laurie (who himself won the 1988 Melbourne Cup with Empire Rose), clearly has more of a Cup pedigree, but stayed composed.
“Obviously, when you win a race like this, it takes a while to register,” said Laxon, who is New Zealander-Australian.
“We’re over the moon, the owners are so thrilled. It does bring back (memories of) the first one.
“I love doing it for the Australians, they’ve done it and Robbie’s Australian now, too. I’m thrilled to win the people’s Cup, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Symons, who was not with Laxon at Ethereal’s win, was probably the more hopeful half of the duo.
“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe we could,” he said.
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