The pioneering jockey Michelle Payne, who made history as the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, still headlines in 2025 due to her successful training association with her brother Patrick and her motivational advocacy activities. The 39-year-old has moved off the saddle and into a successful new chapter of Australian racing ten years after her memorable 2015 ride on Prince of Penzance.
Training Partnership Delivers Success at Flemington
The Payne siblings have dominated Victorian racing since the partnership officially began in September 2024, after she joined forces with her brother Patrick in training. Their running has been incredibly successful, and in June 2025 alone, an incredible 17 winners showed a fantastic result out of 81 starters, and they have had a total of 71 winners since they joined forces.
The highlight of the partnership was a spectacular four-timer at Flemington, when Buccleuch, Stop The Rock, Bold Soul, and Jimmy The Bear all saluted. They won the first race of the 2025 VRC Standish Handicap Race Day at Flemington with Flight by Zorro taking first place and Stormy Grove in second place.
Michelle offers invaluable practical experience to the operation, and Patrick does the work behind the scenes at their Plumpton and Ballarat training bases. “We get along, and I am very excited about the new venture. We both bring something valuable to the table,” Michelle said.
Emotional Reflections on Sister Bernadette’s Death
In October 2025, Michelle discussed the crushing loss of her sister Bernadette, who died in March 2025, at the age of 51. In a very rare and candid interview with The Age, Michelle disclosed how her sister had to deal with painkiller addiction after she had an accident at the age of 21 while riding.
“She would have been numbing the pain, or numbing a depression, or both of them,” Michelle shared. “But she had become unrecognisable and scary by the end of it. I had the order of the intervention against her.”
The tragic talk has continued to fester in Michelle: “I only recall telling her, ‘What do you want?’ and her response was very sad. She said, ‘I don’t want anything. I only wish we could go back to when we were little children and when we all used to play in the puddles and laugh at each other.’ “
Michelle decided to talk publicly about the death of her sister without having all the answers because she thought it would mean something to those people going through the same problem.
Melbourne Cup Ambassador Role and 10th Anniversary
After her retirement in early 2024, Michelle was appointed as the Melbourne Cup Carnival ambassador, a full-circle event in her career. She featured on Nine Network and the international feeds, offering expert commentary on the coverage of the Melbourne Cup and also appeared on the Lexus Melbourne Cup Tour, where she visited rural and regional areas, including her home city of Rochester in Victoria.
Michelle was able to win the Lexus Melbourne Cup in 2015 on Prince of Penzance at Flemington and has been on the best journey since then, visiting places she never could dream of.
Michelle and her brother Stevie commemorated the 10th anniversary of their improbable Melbourne Cup win in October 2025. The story behind the fairytale still gives hope to Australians, and Michelle says that Stevie is “amazing, funny, honest, and the best company to keep.”
Prince of Penzance Thriving in Retirement
Prince of Penzance, the gelding that took Michelle to Melbourne Cup victory at 100-1 odds, is now having a comfortable retirement at Living Legends, the International Home of Rest for Champion Horses. In May 2024, Michelle had a heart-to-heart reunion with her former partner at Flemington in a video taken of the emotional moment.
“It’s so good to see him so relaxed in his frame of mind. And indeed he was so fiery as a racehorse, and was actually loving the retirement at Living Legends,” Michelle said. “It is already old now, I think he has grown 15 or 16… but he is really happy, and really relaxed, and it is wonderful.”
The horse purchased for only $50,000 went through injuries and a serious case of colic that got him an operation before he won the historic Cup. In 2019, he moved into Living Legends and joined fellow winner of the Melbourne Cup, Might And Power.
Career Marked by Resilience and Broken Bones
Michelle had an unusual strength of enduring dreadful injuries in her racing lifetime. Throughout her 20-year career, she had eight major falls and 16 broken bones.
Her greatest injuries consisted of:
- March 2004 (age 18): Fractured head and brain injury at Sandown that took four years to heal.
- 2012: 2 falls that led to a total of nine fractured vertebrae, four broken vertebrae and broken ribs at Donald, two more broken vertebrae and a severe concussion at Ararat.
- May 2016: Lacerated liver, her pancreas was divided, and she has three broken vertebrae after being stepped on in the stomach by Dutch Courage at Mildura.
Michelle overcame the make-retirement requests of her family and doctors despite their warnings. In 2007, when her sister Brigid died, she said, “Life is too short not to do something because you are scared”.
2017 Suspension for Appetite Suppressant
In June 2017, Michelle was suspended for four weeks after she tested positive for phentermine, a prohibited appetite suppressant, during the Swan Hill cup meeting. She was on the medication following her pancreatic surgery after the 2016 Mildura fall to manage the gastrointestinal symptoms.
Michelle admitted guilt and owned up, saying that she had thought that the substance was prohibited on race days but not on trackwork. “I would like to take full responsibility… I feel embarrassed, and I am sorry about that. It is all on me 100 per cent,” she said at the inquiry at Racing Victoria.
Suspension was imposed between June 23 and July 21, 2017, and she could resume her activities in time to ride in the Shergar Cup that was scheduled at Royal Ascot in August.
What Happened to Grand National Horses in 2025?
On April 5, the Grand National at Aintree was won by 33-1 outsider Nick Rockett, of the 34 that started the course, 16 finished. Two horses were taken to the veterinarian during the running race:
Broadway Boy was leading the race by 66-1 odds when he gave a horrible fall at the 25th fence (Valentine Brook). The fall broke the wrist of Jockey Tom Bellamy. The seven-year-old was treated around the clock and was brought home the next day, but “the horse is expected never to run again,” according to trainer Willy Twiston-Davies.
The gelding Celebre d’Allen fell at the last fence and died two days after the race, April 8, 2025, and this was a tragic event. On this occasion, “his condition got much worse”, and he was not able to survive after showing signs of improvement at a nearby stud farm. The jockey, Michael Nolan, was suspended for 10 days on the basis of riding a horse when it seemingly could not run any more.
This was the case previously in the festival when four-year-old Willy De Houelle was fatally injured during the Boodles Anniversary Juvenile Hurdle race.
Michelle Payne’s Enduring Legacy
Officially retiring as a race rider at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, Michelle Payne had ridden more than 700 winners, including five Group Ones. Her win at the 2015 Melbourne Cup is still one of the best moments in the history of the Australian sport, being captured in the 2019 film Ride Like a Girl with Teresa Palmer in the lead role.
Her after-race speech was heard all over the world: “I would say to the rest of the world, get stuffed, because they do not think that women are strong enough, but we just beat the world.”
She was named the winner of the Don Award at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2016, inducted on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2021. Michelle also goes on to inspire the next generation of female jockeys. Today, women make up 83 per cent and 80 per cent of Victorian and Queensland apprentices, respectively.
Michelle Payne is one woman who has stood up, fought on, and defied all odds to make her story in the world of sport a success, as she develops her training ambitions alongside Patrick, the story of Michelle Payne is one of bravery, determination and the bonds of family that cannot be broken, a real Australian sporting legend who continues to trailblaze and be an inspiration to millions of people.
