Michelle Payne’s remarkable life
There’s much more to Michelle Payne than the movie about her remarkable life. In fact, if her sisters had their way, her crowning glory may never have eventuated.
The love farm is in a lush and unpretentious slice of God’s country called Miner’s Rest, where Michelle Payne’s footprints and fingerprints and hopes and prayers and perspirations and tears and triumphs and tragedies and frustrations and never-ending dreams have been marking the dirt and dust for all of her 34 years. A horse nods near the driveway, ushering me through. The grass in the front paddock needs a mow.
The love farm’s real name is Nottingham. Michelle has been in town getting her hair and makeup done, and she looks breathtakingly beautiful now that she has arrived, almost out of place here.
She will talk until the cows come home, but for the time being we can’t find anywhere to sit. She drags out a couple of old plastic paint buckets in the tacking room, turns them upside down and laughs: “Take a seat!” She marvels with a blushing sincerity at the tearaway success of the highest grossing Australian movie of the year, the rousing, uplifting, tear-jerking Ride Like a Girl, the film that feels like one of the best things to have happened to the nation this year. It is the movie of her life.
Seen the scene where her dad says, Where are you going with that? And she says as a child, I’m going to dig up Mum! Seen that scene? It still makes her cry. And the one where she’s leaving Miner’s Rest in a huff, eyes ablaze, car engine revving, only to realise her Down syndrome brother, Stevie, dear Stevie, played by dear Stevie himself, is blinking his puppy-dog eyes at her from the front porch. Don’t leave. But she has to. And the one where her sister, Brigid, dies with the suddenness of a lightning bolt to the heart. And the one where her father, Paddy, tough love personified for his little girl, has a heart attack and says if the Lord wants me to go, well, off I go.
“I saw it for the first time in private,” she says. “Had a couple of drinks, watching it on my own. It was just surreal in that moment. I went in there with no expectations. I didn’t have a lot to do with the filming or the making of it because I didn’t want to get in their way. That was their job. I wanted to let them do it. I knew they would do their best to make a nice little movie. I was telling myself, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just enjoy it. Whatever it is, it is.’ But then I was completely blown away. I couldn’t believe it. Absolutely loved it. That was an amazing response because really, even though I had full faith in them, I had no idea what they were going to come up with.”
What they came up with was Australia’s box-office hit of the year. It has raked in $10m in less than three months. I’ve seen packed Sydney audiences weep and cheer in equal measure. How has it not won best film at the AACTA Awards? Stewards inquiry. Why has it been such a tearaway success? I think it’s because it’s a movie for any kid or adult who has ever been picked on. Any kid or adult who wishes they could dig up Mum. Anyone who has been disrespected and doubted. Anyone who has needed to work twice as hard as everyone else because natural gifts have not been in abundance. Anyone with fire in their soul. Anyone who has been ravaged by physical injuries and/or trauma and/or deep personal loss. Anyone who has been tempted to quit. In other words, it’s a movie for anyone and everyone, anyone made of flesh and blood.
“I just wanted my family to be happy with it,” she says. “As soon as Stevie was in it, we were excited. Every time he comes on — to see him playing himself in a movie is just so unbelievable. He’s so good! It was a lot of fun for him. He enjoys the attention, but he also gets a little bit tired of it. Too much of it probably isn’t what he wants or needs.”
Shed tears yourself? “Oh yeah, about five times,” she says. “It touches on some pretty emotional moments. The part where I’m talking about Mum. Dad says when I was about four years old I said to him, can we go and dig her up? If we dig her up she’ll stop everyone pulling my hair. That scene gets to me a bit.
“And the part where I’m leaving home and I see Stevie standing there. That gets me, too. And when Brigid passes away. It’s so quick and sudden and shoved in your face. That brings back quite a few emotions. And then when Dad had his heart attack. That was so scary at the time. He had a triple bypass and everything. That was really hard for us all. He got really sick after the operation and basically nearly gave up. Told the Lord he could take him, which you see in the movie. He was really, really crook, so seeing that brings back a lot of memories, too.
“I don’t get too emotional watching the ending. It’s a different sort of emotion, I guess. Wow! I won the Melbourne Cup!”
How has Paddy taken the portrayal of his uncompromising affection? “Dad took the movie in his stride,” Michelle says. “To be honest, the first time he watched the movie, at the premiere, he didn’t know what was coming. He was quite hard on me when I was growing up, as you saw. He was thinking he was going to be the hero in the movie and then — he didn’t say too much after it. He just said, ‘I liked the ending!’ But then he went and watched it again at the movies. He hadn’t been to the movies for about a hundred years. He said he thoroughly enjoyed it the second time.
“I think he was really excited to see Stevie in it. Steve is still living at Dad’s, just down the road there, but I’ve got a little cabin I’m going to put out the back here, so he can pop in and out and do his own thing. He loves his privacy but also he loves living with Dad. We can give him the best of both worlds.”
Michelle has entered the 2015 Melbourne Cup on a 100/1 chance called Prince of Penzance. Three minutes later, she’s the first woman to salute at The Great Race. “My life was changed from the moment I jumped off that horse,” she says. “Just like that, it was never going to be the same again. I had no chance to prepare for it. You know what the strangest thing was? I hadn’t thought about it like this, not on my life, but I felt this responsibility come over me.
“I was so totally not naturally gifted as a rider. But I believed in myself. That’s one of my proudest things. No one thought I could do it. But I did, because I worked hard.
“Nothing had come easily for me. Nothing comes easily for a lot of people. It became very apparent to me, within about five minutes, that people were seeing it as a bit of an inspirational thing. I had always wanted to win the Melbourne Cup. To achieve at the highest level in our sport. But as soon as I did it, it wasn’t like, good on me! In all the craziness of those first few minutes, when people were dragging me everywhere — my feet were barely touching the ground — I felt like maybe there was a bigger message there.” Like what? “Like, the power of a dream.”
Now what? “Good question!” She says. “You know, I was sort of looking at probably retiring at that race. It kept me going, to ride Prince of Penzance at the Melbourne Cup, because I thought he had what it took to be a chance. My sisters had been pushing me to retire. I’d told them I would retire at 28. I was 30. I didn’t retire because of that one horse I wanted to ride. And I was still loving riding. I wasn’t ready to retire so I thought I’d give it another go. I’m glad I did because I got to run third in The Oaks for my dad last year, on my dad’s horse. And now? Now I’m transitioning into training.”
The love farm has half a house on it. It will be a full house, plus a cabin for Stevie, in time for Christmas. She says: “I cannot tell you how much I love it here. You buy these horses when they’re one year old. You’re buying them in the belief they’re going to be champions. So you’re striving every day to get the best out of each horse. You’re discovering what each horse can do. I love that. I really love it. I imagine it’s like raising kids. They’re your family. You’re so close to them. It’s like your dog. Each horse is a part of who you are. I get to see these horses every day. How special is that? Riding has always been my passion but I’m transitioning into training. I love the challenge of it. I love buying a horse as a baby, watching them grow and mature, teaching them how to become a racehorse, caring for them, nurturing them, you feel so close to them, you get to know their personalities and they get to know yours. I honestly love everything about it.”
Telling your doubters to get stuffed. Spur of the moment or planned? “Spur of the moment!” she says, laughing. “The night before, I was in the spa with some other jockeys, sweating, and we were joking around about a few things. They were saying, if I win the Melbourne Cup, I’m going to say everyone can get … they were using the worst words! I said yeah, me too! I’ll say that too! That was probably still in my mind. I knew what I was saying. And I said it with a smile. And I didn’t swear. It would have been worse if I swore!”
Has a Cup-winning jockey ever become a Cup-winning trainer? “I don’t think so,” she says. “That would be amazing. We’ve got a lovely little horse here who’s by So You Think, who ran third in a Melbourne Cup, who’s out of a horse called Champagne, who ran second in a Melbourne Cup. His mum and dad have run second and third so we’re hoping he might be able to come first some day. He’s so lovely. You never know, right? That’s the beauty of racing. You never know.”
The love farm’s front paddock still needs a trim. Out here in the middle of nowhere, Michelle gets on the mower and does it herself.
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