Payne ignores doctors and wants to ride this spring
THERE’S no denying the heart of Michelle Payne as the 2015 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey is ignoring her surgeons advice and wants to ride in the upcoming spring carnival.
Payne won the Cup aboard Prince Of Penzance last November and still has the desire to ride in one more spring carnival despite the concerns of those around her.
“I’m not scared of what might happen,” she told Australian Women’s Weekly. “I have never hopped on a horse thinking, ‘what if?’. I couldn’t wait to get back on Woody and as soon as I was on him, I knew everything would be OK.
“I still have the massive fire in the belly to saddle up for one more spring racing carnival, I love competing and feel I’ve got more to give.
“A lot of people have asked, ‘Why keep going, you’ve won a Melbourne Cup?’, but why wouldn’t I?
“Like any other sportsperson, it’s about the competition and the challenge. If a tennis player wins a grand slam, they don’t just retire. I get frustrated with people telling me I shouldn’t ride anymore, so now I ignore it.”
Payne suffered life-threatening injuries when falling at Mildura in May and trauma surgeon Dr Joseph Mathew said Payne was lucky to survive.
“The pancreas was our biggest worry, it was a very serious injury and there was a real risk of death,” Mathew said. “It is quite difficult to operate on the pancreas because it’s tucked away near the back, so this was major surgery and we were crossing our fingers the graft would take because there was a risk of leakage, and if that happened, she would have been in a lot of trouble.”
The relationship between Payne and Darren Weir (trainer of Prince Of Penzance) has been strained since the Cup win and Weir states it’s not up to him whether Payne retains the ride in the 2016 Melbourne Cup.
“It’s not up to me whether Michelle rides him,” Weir said. “It’s up to the owners and what they want.”
Part-owner John Richards is unsure about whether Payne should get the ride.
“We will treat it on its merits – it’s quite awkward,” he said. “At this stage she hasn’t got her permit back to ride and she could be a long way off race-hard fitness.
“We’ve said to her we can’t guarantee the ride. She’s got to get physically fit and then she’s also got to be riding in good enough form. She’s certainly in contention, but she’s got to do a lot of work to get back to rock-hard fitness.”
Prince Of Penzance is currently $30 to win the Melbourne Cup with Sportsbet.com.au.