Michelle Payne

Michelle J. Payne (born 29 September 1985) is a retired Australian jockey. She won the 2015 Melbourne Cup, riding Prince of Penzance, and is the first female jockey to win the event.

Early life

The youngest child of ten of Paddy and Mary Payne, Payne grew up on a farm at Miners Rest, a locality near Ballarat in central Victoria, Australia. Her mother Mary died in a motor vehicle crash when Payne was six months old, leaving her father Paddy to raise their ten children as a single father. Payne dreamt of being a winning jockey as a child, and, at the age of seven she told her friends that she would one day win the Melbourne Cup. She attended Our Lady Help of Christians primary school and Loreto College, Ballarat, and entered racing aged 15, the eighth of the Payne children to do so. She has Irish New Zealand heritage.

Career

She won in her first race at Ballarat, astride Reigning—a horse trained by her father. In March 2004, Payne fell heavily at a race in Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne, fracturing her skull and bruising her brain. As a result of her prolonged recovery period—including a further fall where she fractured her wrist—Payne was granted a three-month extension to her apprenticeship to allow her time to ride out her claim.

Payne won her first Group One race, the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield Racecourse aboard Allez Wonder on 10 October 2009, and trainer Bart Cummings offered her the ride at the Caulfield Cup the following week. Payne was the third female jockey to ride in the Caulfield Cup. As a first-timer in the 2009 Melbourne Cup, she rode Cummings' Allez Wonder with a riding weight of 50.5 kg. The horse was placed 16th in the field of 23. In 2010 Payne rode Yosei to victory in the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield.