Victoria Oaks: Payne family team up for a shot at another Cup week fairytale

Paddy Payne snr will join forces as a trainer with his jockey-daughter Michelle and strapper-son Stevie — as well as a filly he bought for $10,500 — to chase an upset win in the VRC Oaks.

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THERE’S a film being made about the Payne family’s extraordinary racing journey, but if the fairytale script goes to plan at Flemington on Thursday, there might need to be a sequel.

Paddy Payne, the 82-year-old patriarch of one of racing’s most recognisable broods, will join forces as a trainer with his jockey-daughter Michelle and strapper-son Stevie — as well as a filly he bought for $10,500 — to chase the $1 million Group 1 VRC Oaks.

If the trio pull off the unlikely success with $51 chance Miner’s Miss, it will go down as one of the sport’s more remarkable comebacks.

Paddy retired from training seven years ago, content to sit back and watch the successes of his sons and daughters, mostly famously with Michelle’s history-making Melbourne Cup victory on Prince Of Penzance in 2015.

Paddy Payne snr will saddle-up outsider Miner’s Miss in the Victoria Oaks. Picture: Ian Wilson

“I thought I’d had my go at it, and was getting a bit old,” Payne told the Herald Sun. “I was happy to watch the kids do their thing.”

But he hadn’t reckoned on the persuasive techniques of his children, nor the pulling powers of a weanling filly that nuzzled up to him at the sales two years ago, almost begging to be bought.

“I thought I had given training away for good, but the kids talked me into getting a licence again (late last year),” he said. “They said I wasn’t doing enough with my time, and needed to do a few more things — and I listened.”

He did more than that.

Paddy Payne snr was lured back into training by his children.

He went out to the sales, and brought two modesty-bred fillies home to his Miners Rest property, near the Ballarat racecourse.

One of them, Miner’s Miss, a daughter of Victoria Derby winner Rebel Raider, last month gave him his first win as a trainer since 2009, at Avoca.

On Thursday she will provide him with his first VRC Oaks runner.

“I was just standing around before (Miner’s Miss) was about to go in the (sales) ring,” he said “She came in and pushed up against the rail alongside me, and I thought she looks all right. So I went in and bid on her.

Michelle Payne will ride Miner’s Miss for her father in the Victoria Oaks. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“I always used to have colts and geldings, but thought it was time for a change. Makybe Diva was all right, Black Caviar was all right, and Winx goes all right, so I figured there can’t be too much wrong with fillies and mares.”

Michelle will ride for her dad, and he hopes Stevie, who famously formed a great partnership with Prince Of Penzance, will be on hand today to strap Miner’s Miss.

He’s still working out if he will travel to Flemington, or watch on television, as he did on Tuesday when his son-in-law Kerrin McEvoy (who is married to his daughter Cathy) won his third Melbourne Cup on Cross Counter.

Michelle Payne and brother Steve hope their dad can snare a Group 1 win in the Oaks. Picture: David Caird

“I’ll work it out on the day,” he said. “I watched Kerrin on the television, and it was great to see him win a third Cup. He is a great husband, a great father and a great bloke.”

Payne, who brought up his 10 children as a single parent after the death of his wife in a car accident when Michelle was a baby, says he will forever be grateful for what the sport has done for him and his family.

“I’m 82, and I get up at daylight every day,” he said. “I’m walking good, and I am breathing good, so I’m lucky for my age.

“I think I’ve had my share of luck in racing, you shouldn’t expecting any more, I reckon.”

Still, with the Paynes, you just never say never.