Michelle Payne began training as a jockey and won her first race in Ballarat aged fifteen. Over her career, she recovered from catastrophic accidents and persevered to ride over 700 winners, including 5 Group One wins. In 2015, she became the first female jockey to win Australia’s most prestigious horse race, the Melbourne Cup. Since then, Michelle has received many distinguished awards, including the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Don Award, the International Longines Ladies Award and the Order of Australia medal (OAM). In 2016 Michelle published a book with John Harms called
Life As I Know It, and in 2019 a feature film was released called
Ride Like a Girl, which is based on her life story. Michelle was one of the few to hold a dual jockey–trainer licence, but from early 2024 she turned her full focus to training. Michelle continues to inspire people of all ages across all walks of life.
Angus Fontaine has been a journalist, editor and publisher across newspapers, magazines and books for 30 years. An award-winning feature writer, he lives in Sydney where he lectures at UTS and covers all manner of sport for
The Guardian, while also storytelling for titles internationally.
