The loving memory of Michelle Payne’s father that almost made her cry at school

Of all the stories told about racing patriarch Paddy Payne, few better encapsulated the loving, chaotic nature of his life than the day he dropped off youngest daughter Michelle for her first day of secondary school.

It was one of his forgetful moments – a memory lapse that could be brought on by running farms, training horses and raising 10 rowdy kids. A moment that would happen almost 30 years before his peaceful death at home on Tuesday at the age of 90.

The year was 1998, and Michelle, not long turned 13, was following in her sisters’ footsteps. They, too, had gone to Ballarat’s Loreto College.

But soon after her father drove in from Miners Rest and dropped her at the school gates, Michelle was hit by a confronting reality: no one could find her name on the classroom lists.

Confused, she went to the front office with a friend. There she was told she hadn’t been enrolled.

“I started to get a bit sad and was nearly crying, and they’re like, ‘don’t cry, it’s okay. We’ll call your dad’,” Michelle told The Age last year.

“And they ring dad, who is home by this stage after dropping us off, and they said, ‘Oh, we’re just here with your daughter, Mr Payne, we just have a problem: You haven’t enrolled her’.

“And he was like, ‘Ah, haven’t I?’ Because I could hear him. He’s always louder over the phone speaker. And he goes, ‘Oh, sorry about that’.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, that’s alright. We’ll try and find her a spot’. So they found me a classroom. Thank God they understood, you know, because he was doing his best – a single parent raising 10 kids.”

Born in Hawera in South Taranaki, New Zealand, Payne’s best turned out to be pretty good.

His life was upended in 1986 when his wife, Mary, was killed in a car accident near Ballarat. Initially, there was talk of farming out the youngest children to other families to help ease the burden. Michelle was just six months old.

But the patriarch wanted to keep the family together and decided to raise the children on his own.

“My dad always talked about her to me, always told me what a beautiful lady she was,” Michelle recalled in an interview when she was 24.

“It was probably hard for the older kids who remembered her to talk about her. They had their memories they kept to themselves. Dad used to tell me every day how lucky he was. I think it was good for him to get it out, but it was good for me too.”

Under Payne’s guidance, the family would go on to leave an indelible mark on the sport of racing.

Eight of the 10 kids would become jockeys – Brigid, Bernadette, Therese, Patrick, Andrew, Maree, Cathy and Michelle. Only Margaret and Stevie would not ride in a race.

Patrick, Andrew and Michelle would later become trainers like their father.

“He passed away peacefully in his sleep, early this morning at home, he got to have his dying wish,” daughter Therese said in a family statement on Thursday.

“We feel he had a great life, and we were happy he was comfortable. We hope he’s joined our mum and brother and sisters.”

The Paynes lost son Michael in 1985, three days after he was born.

Eldest sister Brigid died in 2007 from a heart attack, six months after a bad track work fall, while the family lost second-eldest daughter Bernadette in March last year.

Mercifully, there were high points in between. Patrick Jr won the 2002 Cox Plate on Northerly and Michelle would create history by becoming the first woman to ride the winner of the Melbourne Cup in 2015.

Michelle’s trailblazing exploits would be captured in the film Ride Like a Girl. Her father was portrayed by the late, great Kiwi actor Sam Neill, while his youngest son Stevie would play himself, the strapper of Prince Of Penzance.

Michelle rode her first winner as a 15-year-old on her father’s horse Reigning in front of her cheering schoolmates at Ballarat. Soon after the victory, her father suggested she chuck it in and go back to school.

“For the first six months, Dad was saying, ‘You just don’t seem to have it. All the other kids showed a little bit of potential…’,” Michelle said.

“I remembered him telling the other kids that they weren’t any good either, telling Maree she could only sit one leg either side and move her little fingers, that was all she could do.

“I knew it wasn’t just me, but it made me so angry. It made me more determined to try harder and prove him wrong.”

In some ways, she did prove him wrong. Payne was always a big supporter of female jockeys and knew they would one day win the Melbourne Cup. He just didn’t dream it would be one of his daughters.

Apart from his lifelong love of horses, Payne was also a dairy farmer. He spent his final years at the family property at Miners Rest near Ballarat. Michelle and Stevie lived nearby.

His last runner was Nip at Kilmore on March 6 this year, 10 days before his 90th birthday, while his final winner was Rosalia at Ballarat in August 2024 when he was 88.

His filly Miner’s Miss, ridden by Michelle, finished third in the 2018 VRC Oaks. It gave the entire family a thrill.

“I worked my whole life with him and started my apprenticeship with him and I can’t remember him having a runner in a group 1, let alone riding for him in one,” Payne told The Age before the race. “Riding for him in a group 1 is so special.”

While Payne won races over the jumps in New Zealand, the galloper that would help set him up for life was Our Paddy Boy, a horse he bought in New Zealand for $1300 in the late 1970s who would go on to win the 1980 group 1 Ellerslie Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).

Payne sold Our Paddy Boy to Robert Sangster for $300,000, a transaction that would bankroll the family’s movie to Australia. They intended to come for two years and never left.

As the Payne family mourned the loss of their father on Thursday, the tributes poured in from the racing world.

Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron Morrison called him “the doyen of a family that has greatly enriched Australian racing”.

“Paddy will be remembered as a great horseman and a loving father,” Morrison said. “His positive influence on female jockey participation cannot be undersold, having encouraged his daughters to ride at a time when female jockeys were fighting for acceptance.”

Victorian Jockeys’ Association chief executive Matt Hyland said the state’s riding ranks were richer for the Payne family’s contributions, and “for that we must say thank you to Paddy”.

Australian Trainers’ Association chief executive Stephen Bell said Payne held a trainer’s licence in Victoria for more than 40 years after earlier success in New Zealand.

“His role in nurturing a family that has contributed so much to racing is legendary and something that we all respect and are thankful for,” Bell said.

Ballarat Turf Club chairman Bill Gribble said Payne’s contribution to racing extended well beyond the racetrack.

“Paddy was the patriarch one of Australian racing’s most remarkable families, and his influence, horsemanship and dedication to the industry will leave a lasting legacy,” Gribble said.

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Danny Russell is a racing writer for The Age.AdvertisementAdvertisement