Michelle Payne content with Randwick role

Thursday 3 December 2015, 11:51am

Michelle Payne is unfazed she won't be riding at Randwick on Saturday and says she never expected to be given special preference over local jockeys.

The Melbourne Cup winner, who will be a guest of the Australian Turf Club, hasn't got a mount on the nine-race program despite making herself available for rides.

Some media reports on Thursday questioned whether her lack of opportunities was related to gender or the perception of her riding ability, suggestions Payne has rubbished.

"We were asked to come up by the ATC in the last two weeks and we asked around the trainers if we could have a ride but it wasn't a big deal," Payne told Sky Sports Radio.

"If we were able to get a ride it would have been great but it wasn't even a problem.

"I'm happy to bring (brother) Stevie up and everyone can meet us, see the Cup and get some photos.

"You've got jockeys up there that are doing all the work and have connections with stables so I wasn't expecting just to come in there and get a book of rides or anything so it's definitely been blown out of proportion."

Payne has been in demand for social and media engagements since she became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup on Prince Of Penzance.

She said she has relished the chance to promote horse racing which has been tarnished by the cobalt issue this year.

The ATC's Brett de Vine said her lack of rides was simply bad timing.

"It's disappointing she hasn't got rides and we threw it out there to as many people as we could," he said.

"Michelle is quite accepting of that situation so to us, we're just very proud and very honoured we've been able to get her here for the fans of Sydney.

"It's not about her sex and it's not about her ability at all. It's simply a timing matter."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »