Racing: Siblings on a mission to honour Kiwi father

Michelle Payne. Photo / Getty Images

Michelle Payne was 6 months old when her mother Rosa Payne was killed in a car crash not far from their home in Ballarat, Victoria.

That left her father, New Zealand-born Paddy Payne, alone to raise 10 children.

It's a scenario that can forge extremely close family ties and in the Paynes' case it did.

Unless they were on a racetrack.

Michelle Payne, 23, is the youngest and is one of the eight Payne siblings who became jockeys - thought to be a world record.

The competition among the brothers and sisters out on the track is the stuff of legends - they've even protested against each other after a race finish and argued in the inquiry room.

Today at Ellerslie it's all different.

Michelle Payne arrived from Melbourne last night to try and win this afternoon's $1 million Stella Artois Auckland Cup for her brother Paddy Payne as jockey and trainer of well-fancied Capecover.

She says it's "kinda nice" to be on the same team as another Payne for a change.

"There's something good about beating your brothers and sisters, particularly in a race. We're a pretty competitive bunch."

Riding in Melbourne, Michelle Payne has broken most records around women riders in a racing arena that offers nothing like the opportunities New Zealand women jockeys receive.

Some rate her as high as in the top 10 jockeys in Australia, and she returns home with offers of some top rides for Bart Cummings in Sydney on Saturday, including Moatise in the Chipping Norton Stakes.

She is just a few shy of 400 Australian winners, but has yet to win at the elite level of group-one status, which hangs over today's Auckland Cup.

"I finished fifth in the 1000 Guineas, not beaten that far, and fifth in a Toorak Handicap quite a while ago."

Her only previous riding in New Zealand was in 2003 when she rode "at about seven meetings" and picked up a winning treble at Tauherenikau.

Nothing means more to her than winning today's gruelling 3200m handicap.

"This would be an unbelievable thrill to win this race.

"It would mean so much to Dad, being from New Zealand.

Brother Patrick was one of the finest jockeys in Australia, despite being haunted by crippling weight problems.

He dabbled with riding over jumps, because of the higher weights, before retiring a little more than a year ago to take up training.

He has not produced a group one winner as a trainer, but he rode plenty of them, including a Cox Plate on the mighty Northerly.

He says Capecover has thrived since being in New Zealand and winning at Ellerslie on Sunday.

One of the thoughts that will go through Michelle Payne's mind as she returns to the birdcage if she is lucky enough to win today will be the moment she was thrown on to the turf during a racefall at Sandown in Melbourne in March 2004.

She was left with a fractured skull and bruising to the brain.

Her father and siblings wanted to announce her retirement, and it crossed her mind.

But a long year later she was back in the raceday saddle.