MICHELLE Payne and her brother Stevie stole the show in the wake of Prince Of Penzance’s remarkable win.

The pair, jockey and groom, are the youngest of 10, who lost their mother Mary in a car accident when Michelle, the youngest, was just six months old. Left to raise all 10, their horse-training father Paddy turned out a stream of jockeys with eight of the Payne siblings having held licenses, six girls and two boys, with Michelle, at 30, the only one still racing.

Stephen (10), born with Down’s Syndrome, an employee of Darren Weir for nearly a decade and the groom of Prince Of Penzance, was given the task of landing an inside barrier on Derby day. At random, he chose well. “Michelle said she would have been happy with barrier one or two but I said ‘I’m going to get barrier number one’ and I got it,” said Payne. In the words of Michelle, from that point: “Everything just fell into place.” Tears were shed, not just from the winning connections, as Stevie Payne led back the Melbourne Cup winner. Asked what he thought of Michelle’s ride - “10 out of 10” was the quick reply.

Mullins ready

to go again

WILLIE Mullins, buoyed by the performance of Max Dynamite, intends to return with the Great Journey gelding.

“I’m delighted to have finished second, especially considering the preparation that he came off this year. He probably won’t jump next year and I think his main aim next year will be to come back here again.

“I thought before the race that he had more improvement than Simenon who was fourth in (2013) and I still think he’ll be even stronger next year,” said Mullins who was full of praise for Michelle Payne.

“I want to give the heartiest of congratulations to the winner. I’m a fan of female jockeys, I use them all the time on my horses back home and it’s a great story for racing so we’re very pleased.”

Red Cadeaux’s condition stable

RED Cadeaux broke down and failed to finish the course in his fifth attempt at the Emirates Melbourne Cup that had yielded three runners-up prizes.

Initial fears were for the worst after Gerald Mosse had dismounted in the straight. Loaded onto a box that was brought onto the course, Red Cadeaux was taken straight to the University of Melbourne Equine Centre at Werribee and he was diagnosed with a fracture in his near-fore medial sesamoid.

“The horse is comfortable with his leg in a splint and the fracture is stable,” said a statement from Racing Victoria.

“Dr Chris Whitton from the University of Melbourne advised that the injury is not currently life threatening, however, the horse will not race again.”

Breeding

BRED at New Zealand’s Rich Hill Farm, Prince Of Penzance was a NZ$50,000 yearling at the 2011 Karaka Premier Sale.

He becomes the 13th Group 1 for their sire Pentire and is out of the Mr Prospector mare Royal Successor, herself out of the dual-Yorkshire Oaks winner Only Royale.

Prince Of Penzance was bought by Queensland bloodstock agent John Foote. “New Zealand has always produced great stayers and still does,” remarked Foote. “He was great value when we bought him as a yearling. He was a nice horse by a very good sire in Pentire, he has a good pedigree and was an extremely good walking horse.” Rich Hill Stud has a full-brother to Prince of Penzance entered in the 2015 Karaka Premier Sale.

Track manager

takes blame

FLEMINGTON track manager Mick Goodie blames himself for a last minute change of mind that affected the manner the Flemington track has played across Derby Day and Cup Day.

“What was really detrimental was the fact that I watered on the Friday night (before the Derby),” said Goodie. “My intention was not to water and at the last minute I changed my mind.

“I thought if it doesn’t rain on Derby Day I’m going to really struggle to get this track back to a genuine galloping track for the Cup.”

Nine millimeters of rain fell at Flemington on the morning of the Derby the result being that across the two days of racing the rail was the place to be and back markers struggled to make ground out wide.

Excess Knowledge Cup route via Lexus

LAST into the Emirates Melbourne Cup field was the Gai Waterhouse-trained Excess Knowledge (seventh) whose bob of the head nosed-out the Darren Weir-trained Zanteca in Saturday’s Group 3 Lexus Stakes.

With a ballot-free entry into Tuesday’s Cup, the former John Gosden-trained Monsun entire leap-frogged into the race with 51kg with Kerrin McEvoy booked for the ride.

Cup on Magnier’s bucket list

COOLMORE have flagged an ongoing intention to contest the Melbourne Cup, a race that has eluded Sheikh Mohammed who began his pursuit of the three-handled ‘loving cup’ with Faithful Sun (7th) in 1998. “Everybody has a bucket list in this industry and I think the Melbourne Cup’s on it,” said Tom Magnier in the lead-up to Tuesday’s Emirates Melbourne Cup. “There’s no race anywhere in the world that has the build up like the Melbourne Cup, it’s fantastic and a credit to Australia. When you picture a trophy in racing, there’s only one you can picture and that’s the Melbourne Cup.”