Mike Dillon: Payne too good to play gender card

Michelle Payne. File photo / Getty Images

It was predictable the first question asked of New Zealand's Danielle Johnson when she lobbed into Brisbane this week for today's Origin Jockeys series at Doomben was: Have you ever been discriminated against in racing because you are a woman.

Equally predictable was the answer: "No".

Johnson's first riding trip to Australia coincided with Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne being unable to secure a ride for today's Randwick meeting. Payne will forever be as famous for her after-race television comments as becoming the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup. "Get stuffed," she told racing's chauvinists straight down the camera.

Should we be surprised she couldn't get a Randwick ride when the fields are larger than Sydney summer racing generally sees.

Probably not. In terms of jockeys, Sydney racing is the Southern Hemisphere's most competitive arena. It took our James McDonald time to break in there and now he's king of the castle.

Payne is in Sydney as guest of the racing industry to display the Melbourne Cup at Randwick today and it would have been nice to see her sport colours on the day. But established horse-trainer-jockey relationships are difficult to interrupt when big money is on the line.

To her great credit Payne has not this time played the gender card.

Thoroughbred racing differs each side of the Tasman. Without New Zealand, Australia's women riders would not be where they are. They would have got there eventually, but more slowly.

Linda Jones blazed the trail, being not only the first woman to ride professionally in Australia, but the first to win when Pay The Purple took the Labour Day Cup in Brisbane.

Possibly because of her looks, Jones was seen as something of a showpiece, despite riding as well as just about any other professional.

Then came Maree Lyndon, brash, abrasive and who cared little about her image or how she was perceived compared to riding winners. When asked on her first trackwork morning visit to Randwick by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Craig (Stinger) Young: "So, you're a woman jockey?" she famously answered: "No, I'm a f****** jockey." And spent the next couple of years proving she was as tough and durable as any male.

Lisa Cropp followed and this is where Australian women jockeys jumped on the springboard.

Michelle Payne is a lovely human being and she can settle down now she has the "get stuffed" off her chest. Most jockeys die without having won a Melbourne Cup - some without riding in it - and that's something they can never take off her.

Randwick be damned.