For its part, Racing Victoria insists it paid the Melbourne Cup prizemoney, “as required”, into the bank account that had been registered with it for Laxon and Symons.

But Laxon and Symons believe the racing body should have picked up that the account – JSL Racing – no longer belonged to them. According to Laxon, it hadn’t since 2014.

“How could they pay it into an account where there’s a red flag on it?” Laxon told this masthead on Thursday.

“You would think it would be pretty basic to check out where you are paying the prizemoney.”

Laxon and Symons have now launched legal action in the Queensland District Court against Racing Victoria. The racing authority has been given 28 days to file a notice of an intention to defend.

Why the trainers haven’t sued the account holder is also a mystery.

“Our legal people have advised us that it is a Racing Victoria issue,” Laxon said.

When asked who had the money, Laxon said it was paid to JSL Racing – which stood for John and Sheila Laxon Racing – a company that was taken over by a former associate.

“The person who actually ran the business, the accountant who ran the business from there on in, that’s where the money has gone,” Laxon said.

She would not reveal the accountant’s name but claimed he had ceased operating the business in 2023.

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Symons and Laxon, who became the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup with Ethereal in 2001, met at Macedon Lodge in the years after her historic win and set up a training base in Seymour.

From 2003 to 2014 they operated as JSL Racing before hitting severe financial headwinds.

In October 2014, a Supreme Court judge ruled against Symons and Laxon in a civil case brought against them by horse owners Frank and Karen Butler and Glenn Fielding.

As part of his 195-page judgment, Judge John Digby found that Symons and Laxon sold partial interests in racehorses to the plaintiffs but did not find additional investors.

Because the horses were not paid for in full at Magic Millions and Inglis auction houses, they were not able to be trialled or raced.

The cost of the trial sent Laxon bankrupt.

After the trial, JSL Racing Pty Ltd was taken over by JSL Racing (Australasia) which then became Esprit Racing.

Symons and Laxon relocated to the Sunshine Coast.

In 2016, Laxon was granted a training licence on appeal by the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission on the strict condition she was “an employee of Esprit Racing for training purposes only and not to have any involvement in the finance aspect of the business”.

This masthead contacted the accountant on Thursday and he said he was on holidays and had no comment.

“It’s got nothing to do with me, talk to the company,” he said.

“I am sick of Racing Victoria dragging me into this crap. Tell them to go and get their facts right, where the money went. And talk to the company. It’s got nothing to do with me.”

He would not give the name of the company he was referring to.

Missing out on the prizemoney has been a huge blow to the trainers, who made it known they were on the brink of retirement last year before being reinvigorated by Knight’s Choice’s incredible win.

They bought three yearlings at the recent New Zealand Karaka sales and five yearlings at the January Magic Millions, including $400,000 for an unnamed filly by Zoustar out of Sheila’s Star.

“We were thrilled to get into that horse,” Laxon said. “But if we had known what was going to happen with the [prizemoney], we might have curtailed our expenditure a little bit.

“Obviously we have purchased yearlings on the basis of going forward, utilising that [Cup] win to encourage owners to jump aboard.

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“It is disappointing that we can’t do what we were going to do, which was go ahead full bore, and enjoy carrying on racing and everything else with a great band of owners.”

Part of the trainers’ grief about the missing money is that they had registered their new Symons-Laxon Racing account with Racing Queensland.

They expected it would also update on the Victorian database. That was not the case.

Symons and Laxon were also unaware that several other payments made by Racing Victoria last spring were not going into their new account.

In all, counting the Melbourne Cup cash, they haven’t received more than half a million dollars.

An insider with knowledge of the case, but unable to speak on the record, said Racing Victoria had made several offers to help the trainers recover the money, but the offers were never taken up.

The source said Racing Victoria, under the rules of racing, had also sent a letter to the individual associated with the account that received the Cup prizemoney. No money was returned.

Helen Bird, a senior lecturer at the law school at Swinburne University, said it was the obligation of the party who was being paid to provide the correct account details.

“If I was Racing Victoria, that is what I would be saying, ‘We get the details from you, and we rely upon them’,” Bird said.

“Really, it’s a lesson in being prudent in what you do about your financial arrangements.”

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Bird agreed that an account holder keeping $464,000 in prizemoney that did not belong to them would be “effectively theft”.

“What makes it hard to understand is that they [the trainers] haven’t brought that action – the trainers did not sue the account holder,” she said.

“It appears that there is more to it than meets the eye. There is something going on there.

“Because the normal thing is to contact the person and say the money has been paid into the wrong account, and ‘can I have it back, please’?

“There is an issue there. Why aren’t they doing it? There is potentially a dispute.”

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