Michelle Payne pinpoints her new Prince Of Penzance as she relives her greatest moment in the saddle
It’s still the hardest, most intense thing I’ve ever done and just maybe this year we might have another Prince Of Penzance to keep the Melbourne Cup at home, writes 2015 winner Michelle Payne.
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Every year it’s heart in your mouth, the Melbourne Cup.
So exciting to see who’s going to be the next winner and whose life it will change.
How crazy? To think one three-minute race can have that effect.
It certainly changed mine. In so many ways. All the Melbourne Cup winners I’ve met say the same.
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The work that goes into getting there is what sometimes gets forgotten on race day.
To obtain a ride on the right horse is hard enough, then to be 110 per cent fit for a two-mile (3200m) race, and it is hustle and bustle, it’s not like you jump and flow along.
You’ve got to hold a spot, the best position possible from where you have drawn. It’s rough in there, like nothing else.
hausts me, just the thought of it, because you know the effort it takes to get there, to do all the form, be in tip top shape and then to execute it.
The build up to the race itself is so intense, right up until the jockeys get introduced to the crowd in the mounting yard before the race, that’s when it starts to get real. The owners are on edge, they are so excited, so nervous!
I still get flashbacks of riding at Flemington on Cup Day in 2015, it was so special, the mounting yard especially for me because I was with Prince’s (Of Penzance) strapper Maddie Raymond and my brother Stevie before the race.
I remember looking down at Stevie and thinking to myself who would believe this, here we are, two little kids from Ballarat about to take on the world in the Melbourne Cup.
It was quite a surreal moment.
The roar is incredible, as jockeys we’re in the zone, but even then it is hard to ignore the roar.
I like to stand and watch the Cup from the stewards’ tower, on the first level, that’s where the jockeys that haven’t got a ride tend to go.
It is the best seat in the house if you’re not riding, it’s a great consolation.
I’ll be sneaking up there to get my spot, like anywhere at Flemington on the day, you have to get there pretty early as it gets packed and crowded.
The view from the tower is like nothing else, you hear the roar of the crowd, and you feel the atmosphere of what it’s like for the jockeys out on the track.
Winning it, the Cup, is the hard part, with the amount of high quality internationals now in the race from all over the world with all the money in the world.
It’s getting harder and harder, but it is so nice to see a couple of locals still in with a great chance.
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The internationals have focused on breeding stayers for so long, seems to be why they have an advantage over us and they give them plenty of time to mature, maybe something we can improve in the future over here.
They add so much quality to the field to make it one of the hardest races to win in the world.
You can’t rule out Cross Counter doing it again though, he was amazing last year and Geelong Cup winner Prince Of Arran, he’s been really good in his runs out here.
The Melbourne Cup is so open again, like every year, there’s with 15 or so live chances.
I like Surprise Baby, who came from the same stud farm in New Zealand as Prince Of Penzance, and it would be pretty special if we could keep the Cup in Australia.
