Gossip Queen: Michelle Payne eyeing the finishing line
Michelle Payne says while she still has ambitions as a jockey she is starting to consider the idea of retirement, but revealed she still has big plans up her sleeve.
Fiona Byrne
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Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne has tipped she will retire from the saddle at the end of the year.
Payne, who was at the Portsea Polo on Saturday as an Off The Track Ambassador, said while she still had ambitions as a jockey she was beginning to contemplate retirement.
Payne holds a jockey/trainer license and has a stable of promising horses at Ballarat.
“I think probably the end of the year will see me out,” Payne said.
“I don’t want to go giving it (race riding) away without giving it 100 per cent and I think when the time is right I will just know.
“I have some really nice horses like Sweet Rockette (in training) who I would like to ride (in races).
The main thing is I want to make sure I am in really great shape for that. It is quite hard juggling training and keeping fit and doing everything else, but if I feel like I am in the right shape I definitely want to ride horses like her and any of the other ones I feel like I would suit. I want to make the most if it before I retire.”
Payne was at Surfer’s Paradise last week where she attended a screening of Ride Like A Girl, the movie based on her life, with the Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Tindall, and her husband, Mike.
“Zara said she was going to take home the DVD for her grandmother, The Queen. Hopefully they will watch it together which would be unbelievable.”
In her Off The Track role, Payne was busy promoting the virtues of retired racehorses at the polo.
“They have so much to offer. It is so important for people to know they can be utilised in so many different areas whether it is dressage, show jumping, polo, showing or hacking. They are such amazing animals,” she said.