Warwick hosts cup winning trainer

RACING: Boxing Day will be a treat for Warwick racing as it is not every day that a Melbourne Cup-winning trainer brings runners to Allman Park.

It will be the first time in more than a century of racing at Allman Park that a Melbourne Cup winning trainer will bring horses as Sheila Laxon has four starters. Laxon trained Ethereal to the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double in 2001 and was the first female trainer to claim the double.

She and partner John Symons moved from Victoria to train at the Sunshine Coast in April and will start Irish Constabulary in the $30,000 Olsens Produce/Freestone Feedlot Magic Millions Country Cup Qualifier Open Handicap over 1200m on Monday.

“Irish Constabulary is a Magic Millions horses and we want to qualify him for the Country Cup on Magic Millions Day at the Gold Coast,” Laxon said.

Laxon and Symons also have Miktegic nominated in the maiden plate over 800m, Cape Denison in the 1500m maiden handicap and Laudit in the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 1350m.

She has a connection with Laudit after a track work on board his mother led to an 18-month stint in a wheelchair for Laxon.

“He owes me as it was his mother I was riding when I fell at Macedon Lodge,” she said. “Laudit is a special horse for me, he is a good looker, arrogant and has a real opinion of himself.”