Paddy Payne proud of Melbourne Cup-winning daughter Michelle

HE raised 10 kids on his own and one of them just won the Melbourne Cup, but Paddy Payne is probably Australia’s most humble dad.

PADDY Payne is a man of few words.

The Ballarat racing identity and former trainer didn’t speak with his daughter Michelle when she made history yesterday becoming the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

“After the race the phone kept ringing and I wanted to hear the comments on the TV so I didn’t answer the phone,” he told the Nine Network this morning.

But Michelle knew she had her dad’s support, saying her win wouldn’t have been possible without the upbringing he gave her.

A horse trainer and dairy farmer, Paddy Payne was left to raise 10 children on his own when his wife Mary died in a car accident. Michelle was only six months old at the time.

In a 2011 interview Michelle said there had been talk of splitting up the family when her mum died. “But Dad didn’t want that. We stuck together,” she said.

Paddy worked the older kids hard looking after his horses while the younger ones earned their keep on the dairy farm. It was hard, Michelle says, but the only way her struggling father could support the large family.

A humble father: Paddy Payne on Nine’s Today.

He didn’t push his kids into racing, but most followed his lead, with eight of the 10 becoming jockeys or trainers. Stevie, the youngest boy of the brood, who has Down syndrome and also became a household name after yesterday’s cup, works for trainer Darren Weir at his Ballarat stables.

Although the racing stalwart has always been proud of his childrens’ success in the sport, it’s been tough on him at times.

In 2004, after a nasty fall that saw Michelle fracture her skull and suffer cerebral bruising, he encouraged her to give up riding.

Two years later, his eldest daughter Brigid died after an aneurysm and heart attack that followed a fall during trackwork that left her in an induced coma.

But Michelle kept riding even after another fall broke her back in 2012. She kept terrifying her dad and making him as proud as the day she won her first race at 15, where he watched, cheering her on from the rails.

“Things were not going good and she had a few nasty falls and unexpected things had happened ... she wasn’t well. But she’s got better now and she’s OK,” he told ABC Radio this morning.

“She’s a good girl. She works hard and she’s kind and she’s a generous sort of thing.”

While dad was at home Melbourne Michelle Payne celebrated with her brothers and sisters Andrew, Cathy, Michelle, Stephen, Margaret, Bernadette, Patrick and Therese. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin.

Though Mr Payne is modest about successfully bringing up 10 kids on his own despite many trials — “I don’t see it that way at all” — he does admit his encouragement of hard work paid off.

“I think she didn’t get spoiled as a youngster, they had to do their share of the work and it worked out good for them,” he said.

“They’ve been together from a young age and they’ve got on good,” he said of Michelle and his son Stephen.

“He’s a delightful character.”

Mr Payne admitted he didn’t back Michelle’s horse in yesterday’s race, and that he never imagined one of his girls would bring home the Cup.

Michelle thanked her father publicly yesterday, and this morning said she had spoken to him after the race.

“What he did bringing us up: we stuck together and just had to get out there and do the job,” the history-making jockey told ABC’s 7.30.

“I’m just so grateful for my upbringing because I wouldn’t be here without that.”

Originally published as Paddy Payne proud of Melbourne Cup-winning daughter Michelle