Claiming rider for our own

Michelle Payne celebrates her winning ride on Prince Of Penzance to win race 7 the Emirates Melbourne Cup with brother and strapper Stephen Payne

It's been a great week or so for New Zealand sport what with the Rugby World Cup win and all.

And the "and all" has to include the Melbourne Cup win by Kiwi-bred Prince of Penzance behind which are many stories, not so much about the horse but about winning jockey Michelle Payne and her family.

I have never met Michelle, the closest I got to that was just a few years back when she was over from Australia and rode at Tauherenikau, clinching a winner on the day, too.

Drawing a slightly long bow we can claim Michelle as one of us.

The Payne family originally hailed from Taranaki, although that was a fair while ago and somewhere in my racing archives I have a Hoofbeats photo of Paddy Payne Snr - Michelle's dad - in racing silks pictured with a group of hurdle jockeys.

The move to Australia was not all beer and skittles for the Paynes.

Michelle's mum Mary died in a car crash when Michelle - the baby in a family of 10 children - was only 6 months old.

Paddy gathered his kids about him and embarked on a remarkable journey to raise them the best he knew how, helped by the older children who took the younger ones under their wing.

Racing is the family's passion and practically all Michelle's siblings have either been jockeys, trainers or have shared some aspect of the magic of the Sport of Kings.

Paddy Jnr was a very successful rider and is now training, like his dad before him.

Michelle's sister Therese is married to jockey Jason Patton, Maree to hugely successful international jockey Brett Prebble and Cathy to equally successful jockey Kerrin McEvoy.

But in the aftermath of Michelle's gutsy Melbourne Cup ride perhaps the most endearing aspect was her wonderful response to her brother Stevie, who has Down syndrome and who was strapper for Prince of Penzance. She cuddled him and shared his huge delight at her win. In fact, Stevie's face, wreathed in grins, has seared itself into the memory of everyone watching.

Kiwi blood is hard to deny and I would like to think that, despite the passage of time, Paddy Snr and his family still feel an affinity to the land of the long white cloud.