In a moving article republished on Kidspot Paddy Payne opens up about his determined daughter Michelle who won the Melbourne Cup last week.
Paddy wasn’t at the track, instead he watched his youngest of 10 children take the prestigious award from the comfort of his home.
Paddy’s wife, Rose, died when Michelle was just six-months-old leaving the family of 10 children to band together and get by as best they could.
“Her mum would have been very happy, she would have got a kick out of it, it was just an unreal thing,” he said.
“It was a huge blow losing my wife but we decided very quickly that we would give it our best shot.
“In-laws offered to take some of the kids but we wanted to keep the family together.
“So the older ones looked after the younger ones, it wasn’t that hard really.
“Michelle did do it hard sometimes as a youngster not having her mum around, but it all worked out well in the end.”
Michelle is the eight sibling to have a career with horses, and paddy describes his daughter as “very determined.”
“She’s worked very hard over the years to be fair and she’s ended up winning the bloody cup,” Mr Payne said.
“She always wanted to be a jockey from a very young age, always had that passion for horses. Her brother Patrick showed a lot of promise but she might have been the keenest of the girls though. She was the one that really wanted to do it.”
After her impressive race, Michelle caused a stir by telling her critics to “get stuffed,” but as the first female to take the title she fought hard for her place and gained some criticism along the way.
