Training duo John Symons and Sheila Laxon have shifted the fight for their $464,000 slice of last year’s Melbourne Cup prizemoney to the County Court of Victoria.
Symons and Laxon, who won the famous race with outsider Knight’s Choice, are suing Racing Victoria, claiming the sport’s governing body has repeatedly failed to hand over the cash.
Jockey Robbie Dolan celebrates with Knight’s Choice after winning the Melbourne Cup.Credit: Justin McManus
The Sunshine Coast-based partnership initially launched legal action in the Queensland District Court on February 5 this year, but put an end to those proceedings on Wednesday.
Instead, Symons and Laxon have moved the battleground to Melbourne, the city in which they shot to national prominence by taking out this country’s greatest race on the first Tuesday of November last year.
It was a feel-good finish that further captured the public’s imagination because it involved a horse bred to be a sprinter winning our premier staying race, while the jockey, Robbie Dolan, was better known outside racing circles for his appearance on reality TV singing contest The Voice.
But because of a pay dispute the fairytale factor has since lost some of its gloss.
In a writ filed with the County Court on April 23, Symons and Laxon claim that Racing Victoria has owed them Melbourne Cup prizemoney since November 9 last year – four days after the running of the Flemington race.
They claim they are owed a further $8389.28 in prizemoney that was earned by their horses during the 2024 spring carnival.
Symons and Laxons, who are registered and licensed to train in Queensland, raced three horses – Knight’s Choice, Mission of Love and Winsome Star – in Victoria between September 14 and November 9 last year.
Between them, their runners amassed $472,389.28 in prizemoney across eight different race days, the lion’s share coming from winning the Melbourne Cup.
Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice with trainer Sheila Laxon.Credit: Getty Images
The trainers claim their earnings were due to be paid no later than December 16.
They say they made further demands for the money on December 20 and April 1 this year.
This masthead reported in February that Racing Victoria said it had paid the prizemoney into an account registered with them for Laxon and Symons – an account named Esprit Racing.
But, according to Laxon, the pair had not been connected to that account since 2014 when they were last registered as trainers in Victoria.
The writ says Symons and Laxon applied to Racing Australia on September 14 last year for a “visiting training licence” to operate in Victoria during the spring carnival.
The writ says Racing Australia passed on the request to Racing Victoria and then later told the trainers that the licence had been granted.
The $472,389.28 paid by Racing Victoria in to the Esprit Racing account has still not resurfaced.
Esprit Racing was sent into liquidation just two months after it received the trainers’ Cup cash.
Jockey Robbie Dolan (centre) hoists the Melbourne Cup with trainers Sheila Laxon and John Symons.Credit: Eddie Jim
It had one director, Judith Sutcliffe, 82, from Tarneit at the time of its collapse, according to the company records filed with the corporate regulator.
Symons told this masthead in February that Sutcliffe was the mother of accountant Michael Kirby, who, according to company records, was listed as Esprit’s accountant.
Kirby was the original director of Esprit Racing, a company that operated stables and employed Symons and Laxon as trainers between 2016 and 2023.
Kirby provided a personal “financial guarantee” for the trainers, who were declared bankrupt in 2014, to be licensed in Queensland on the condition they work “for training purposes only and will not be involved in the finance aspect of the business”.
Kirby declined to comment when contacted in February, directing this masthead to Esprit’s liquidator.
“It’s got nothing to do with me, talk to the company,” he said.
This masthead asked Kirby specifically whether Judith Sutcliffe was his mother or another relative, and whether he knew how she had decided to appoint Jirsch Sutherland as a liquidator. He did not respond to those questions.
Kirby and Symons bought last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice for $85,000 at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale before selling the horse to current owners Cameron Bain and Richard and Kaye Waldron.
Symons told this masthead in February they parted ways with Esprit Racing in 2023 because they alleged that the company was not paying staff and the trainers “were getting a bad name because of it”.
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