Symons and Laxon make Macedon Lodge their permanent training home

Melbourne Cup-winning trainers Sheila Laxon and John Symons have been cleared to train in Victoria on a full-time basis, confirming Macedon Lodge as the permanent base of their operation.

The husband-and-wife team will continue to maintain a stable on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, primarily to service horses aimed at the state’s winter and summer carnivals, but Victoria will now be the centre of their training activities.

Macedon Lodge was Symons’ training base in the early 2000s where he prepared top-class sprinter Bel Esprit and from where his now wife Sheila Laxon prepared Ethereal to claim the 2001 Melbourne Cup. It was also their base two years ago when Knight’s Choice delivered them a remarkable Melbourne Cup victory.

The private training centre, to the west of Melbourne, was to be their base for the spring last year but a strangles outbreak caused havoc and prevented Knight’s Choice’s tilt at back-to-back cups while a string of other horses were stuck in mandatory quarantine while the disease was managed.

Macedon Lodge was formerly owned by Melbourne Cup-winning owner Lloyd Williams and is now operated by Gold Coast-based hospitality entrepreneur Bruce Dixon, who purchased the property for about $20 million in 2022.