Michelle Payne Crowned As First-Ever Female Jockey to Win the Melbourne Cup

Who run the world? Melbourne Cup crowned its first ever female winner today as 30-year-old jockey Michelle Payne and her horse Prince of Penzance took out the annual prize.

Prince of Penzance won first place ahead of Max Dynamite and Criterion for the $6 million track event, while Fame Game started a firm favourite for the race ahead of Trip to Paris and Preferment, in front of a huge crowd at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse. 

“Everyone else, get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world,” Michelle said after the race. The central Victoria native entered racing at 15 years of age, upholding the family legacy as the eighth Payne to do so, and has been dreaming of this moment since she was a little girl.

“You do it every year. This is everybody’s dream as a jockey in Australia and now probably the world. And I dreamed about it from when I was five,” she explained, noting that he school friends used to tease her when she’d express her goal of winning the Melbourne Cup. “They always give me a bit of grief about it and I can’t believe we’ve done it.”

Congrats on making Melbourne Cup history, Michelle! 

Check out all the trackside fashion here.

[Via Buzzfeed Australia]

 

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