“It’s a local triumph for the little guys”: Knight's Choice claims the 2024 Melbourne Cup

Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup.

Ridden by Robbie Dolan, Knight’s Choice has claimed an epic edition of the race that stops the nation and he did at the huge price of $101.

Trained by Sheila Laxon and John Symons, Laxon wins the Cup 23 years after becoming the first female trainer to do so back in 2001 with Ethereal.

Laxon hasn’t had a runner in the race since that day and she now has two Cups to her name.

Japanese star Warp Speed ran second by half a head with Okita Soushi and Zarodozi rounding out the top four.

Last seen running fifth in the Bendigo Cup, Knights Choice hasn’t won a race in nearly a year and was beaten by 16.5 lengths in the Caulfield Cup two starts ago.

Dolan wins the race in his first ride in the Cup.

Reacting to the triumph, SEN’s Gerard Whateley believes this win is a win for the battlers in a race that has been dominated by the riches in recent times.

“Sheila Laxon has lived it over again,” Whateley told SEN.

“23 years after becoming the first female trainer to win the Melbourne Cup with Ethereal, she returns with this bolter with John Symons as her co-trainer.

“It’s a stunning Cup as the two of them have weaved their way through down on the inside as gaps opened up.

“Absurde ran into a dead end, Zardozi and Okita Soushi fought it out and the favourites in the race Vauban and Buckaroo were never a hope, they were in the next suburb.

“Robbie Dolan what a moment but Sheila Laxon deary me!”

“Think about who this training duo is, it’s incredible, she joins the greats!

“It’s a local triumph for the little guys, this is a horse that started his career in Queensland and it does most of its racing there, it then comes to the Melbourne Cup pretty unfashionably but that’s why it’s a handicap and that’s why it’s always been the way it is.

“The five-year-old gelding restores a bit of what it has been, there’s still a place for the rank underdog in the Melbourne Cup.”

Melbourne Cup favourite Buckaroo finished in the second half of the field alongisde boom import Vauban.