Michelle Payne’s bombshell retirement announcement

Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne confirms she will retire from racing and opens up on why she felt “lost” after her historic win.

“It’s been a lifetime of working really hard and I’ve loved it. But there are other things to enjoy,” says Payne. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

From the age of five, Michelle Payne had one dream: to win the Melbourne Cup. Through workplace bias and horror falls, she stayed the course, and her determination finally paid off in 2015, when she crossed the finish line on Prince of Penzance to become the first female jockey to hoist the winner’s trophy in its 155-year history. Now 38, Payne is ready for a change of pace, exclusively confirming to Stellar that she will retire from racing after this season to focus on training horses and watch on as other women thrive in her beloved sport: “It gives me goosebumps to think how normal seeing female jockeys win big races is becoming”

Regardless of the obstacles in front of her over the past 23 years, Michelle Payne has fought hard to overcome them. From getting race-fit to ride at an elite level to recovering from horrific falls that could have easily derailed her racing career, the jockey has shown her toughness. When she defied expectations in the sport and convinced owners to let her ride Prince of Penzance in the 2015 Melbourne Cup – going on to make history as the first woman to win the famous race – she revealed her steely resolve.

But when the time came for Payne to renew the jockey licence that’s required for thoroughbred racing in Victoria, she faced a new kind of challenge. Since her Melbourne Cup victory, the now 38-year-old has travelled the world as an inspiring figure, whose life became the subject of a bestselling 2016 memoir and hit 2019 movie Ride Like A Girl.

“Winning [The Cup] was my ultimate goal, so I was lost after that for a bit. But I didn’t want to panic and now, [after] eight years, it feels like the right time,” says Payne. Picture: Sam Bisso

She has also spent the past six years working with horses, running a stable with her brother Stevie, and now has nine horses in full training. What she hadn’t been doing was racing enough to complete the minimum requirement of 24 rides in two years.

“I had to fight pretty hard to get my licence again,” Payne tells Stellar. “I ended up having 11 rides in June, but I got injured in July and wasn’t going to meet the criteria. But thankfully they took that into account and gave me another year.”

The licence process signalled to Payne that she was nearing the home straight of her racing career. “I was looking for a sign when it felt right. And this was it. I’ve been asked so many times since [winning] the Cup, ‘When are you retiring?’ I understand why. Winning [it] was my ultimate goal, so I was lost after that for a bit. But I didn’t want to panic and now, [after] eight years, it feels like the right time.”

Cutting through the speculation, Payne confirms to Stellar that the 2023-24 season will be her last as a jockey. She’s also hoping to have one of her horses in a race across the four days at the Melbourne Cup Carnival, but at press time, it was too soon to say if that would become a reality.

Read the full interview with Michelle Payne in this weekend’s edition of Stellar, with Sarah Harris on the cover.

“It’s hard to keep in shape for racing competitively,” she explains. “It’s a lot of work, both physically and mentally. But I’ve ridden really well this year because I see an end in sight. I’m really motivated. My body is feeling great. I’ve got a really nice young team of horses that have been racing well and I’m just enjoying it while it lasts.”

The idea of giving up racing but not race days helped Payne make her decision. As well as becoming a trainer, Payne has emerged as an expert on-air commentator, lending her expertise to the UK presenting team at ITV Racing for Royal Ascot in June, and will again join Network 10’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup on November 7. “I love [bringing] the knowledge I’ve learnt over 20 years of riding and working with horses to people at home,” she explains. “I feel it’s interesting to share those intricate details.”

Yet nothing, Payne continues, will ever compare to the feeling of guiding a horse as it sprints at 70km per hour to victory in a big race. “Being a jockey is a whole different adrenaline rush that you couldn’t even imagine. Being out there, competing and having that connection with the horse is probably what I’m going to miss the most. It’s something really special, the bond you form. Especially now, training and [riding] them in a race. That’s probably going to be the hardest thing to walk away from. But I was aware it was coming and prepared myself mentally for that.”

What she won’t miss is the constant training. “I’m not a natural athlete,” she admits, “so I have to put in an exceptional amount of work behind the scenes to be race-fit.”

On her Ballarat farm in regional Victoria, Payne wakes before dawn, rides horses for five hours, then completes an hour-long training regimen to keep her weight down and her body agile. The latter part has meant saying no to parties, festivals and nights out with friends for more than 20 years. “If you want to compete well, you’ve got to really dedicate yourself to what you’re doing,” she explains. “So you just have to miss out. If you do it half-hearted, you’re not going to get the result. I sacrificed that for so many years.”

“It gives me goosebumps to think how normal seeing female jockeys win big races is becoming. It makes me really proud,” says Payne. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

While she will always ride horses – “I think the discipline is good for me, especially after all these years of having a routine” – Payne says having more flexibility in her schedule will be a welcome change. “I’m looking forward to being more social and having more fun and adventure,” she adds.

It’s not just a social life that Payne has sacrificed for racing. The youngest of 10 children raised by her father, Paddy (her mother, Mary, died when she was six months old), she fell in love with the sport when she was five. But her eldest sister Brigid – the first of the siblings to become a jockey – suffered major falls and died of a heart attack in 2007 at the age of 36. In April, her friend and fellow jockey Dean Holland died aged 34 from injuries suffered in a race fall. When Payne was 18, her first major fall resulted in a fractured skull; a fall in 2016 required pancreatic surgery.

“We were brought up really tough, 10 kids and having Dad raise us,” she says. “I’m a little bit unique in the way that I have a bit of a different pain threshold and a different view on risk-taking because my dad has taken a lot of risks with us growing up. But if I sit back and look at it, it does seem crazy to be able to just keep coming back time and time again, all the concussions and injury. But that’s how I am.”

Payne laughingly says that Stevie – who was the strapper for Prince of Penzance when they claimed the Cup – loves to win and will miss her racing, but adds that her older brother, who has Down syndrome, “understands the dangers of it, so he’ll be happy to see that different element of life as well”.

Payne, who is an ambassador for World Vision Australia, isn’t oblivious to the possible future health risks due to her career. “It obviously scares the hell out of me; I’ve had some horrific concussions and fractured my skull, and I know what has come down the track with concussions, like depression. So it’s something I’ve looked into and spoken to people about because you want to be on the front foot,” she explains, adding that she regularly seeks the opinion of specialists and does puzzles daily to keep her mind in shape.

It was with that in mind that Payne reached out to fellow top Australian jockey Jamie Kah after she suffered a brain bleed following a mid-race fall in March. “It’s important to be able to talk to people who have had head injuries and be able to shed a bit of light on it because you know it’s possible for it to get better if you think positively,” Payne says. “If I can help anyone in any way, then it hasn’t all been for nothing.”

This desire to leave her sport in a better place than when she found it has motivated Payne throughout her trailblazing career. “What I’ve achieved has only been possible because of the people who came before me,” she tells Stellar. “My older sister Therese was a really, really good jockey, but I remember watching a video of her when she was 17 and she said, ‘Obviously, everyone wants to win the Melbourne Cup but that just seems so out of reach.’ She wouldn’t even dream about it, and she was a superstar. But that’s how times have changed. I feel so lucky that I came after her. I saw her go through all the hard yards, and could dream of winning the race when I was five and didn’t think twice about it.”

She soon won’t be the only woman to have won the Cup, Payne insists. “It gives me goosebumps to think how normal seeing female jockeys win big races is becoming. It makes me really proud. The jockeys’ rooms are filling up with young girls coming through – they’ve had to make them bigger.”

Which is why the time is right for Payne to hand over the reins to the rising stars. “It’s been a lifetime of working really hard and I’ve loved it,” she says. “But there are other things to enjoy. I’m looking forward to having a family, hopefully, and just relaxing a bit and enjoying life in a different way.”

Michelle Payne will join Network 10 as a Melbourne Cup Carnival host. Live coverage starts with Penfolds Victoria Derby Day on November 4 from 11.30am on 10 and 10 Play.