Ride On: Hope, healing and getting back on the horse

by Michelle Payne

A decade after her dramatic launch into fame, celebrated jockey Michelle Payne reflects on what she's learned about love, loss, courage and kindness.

The Melbourne the most prestigious horse race in Australia and never won by a female jockey—until 2015.

When Michelle Payne swept past the post, she made history and galloped straight into our hearts. Yet what came next for Michelle was an even wilder a whirlwind of international celebrity that drove her to breaking point, a second catastrophic race fall and a gruelling road to recovery.

Ten years later, Ride On reveals how Michelle found the courage, resilience and determination to keep fighting and triumphing in the face of extraordinary adversity and pain, the perspective that allowed her to dig deeper and reach further than she'd ever thought possible and the wisdom that can help anyone searching for hope and the power to overcome.

This raw and remarkable story of a life lived against the odds showcases timeless lessons of love and loss, hope through heartbreak, healing kindness, the power of patience and finding the strength—no matter what—to rise up and ride on.

'It's been a decade since that magical Tuesday in November when Michelle rewrote Australian sporting history. We watched her deal with that glaring spotlight – and in these pages we gain an understanding of how Michelle approached a subsequent barrage of challenges with her trademark courage. Standing together, the Payne family are precious to each other and to Australian racing. But we honour Michelle particularly for that 2015 Cup ride which has become a benchmark and inspiration for a host of female jockeys who've followed in her wake.' BRUCE McAVANEY

'Ten years after Michelle's win, Ride On works through the life one builds after holding your dreams in your hand—from triumph to tragedy and back to the kind of triumph we can all relate enduring, growing and living.' RACHEL GRIFFITHS

'When I stepped into Michelle Payne's world for Ride Like a Girl, I caught a glimpse of her courage and grit. But Ride On takes you beyond the finish line into the storms she's faced, the falls she's endured and the quiet strength it takes to rise again. It's raw, inspiring, heartfelt and a powerful reminder that resilience is in the breath you take before you try again.' TERESA PALMER

304 pages, Paperback

Expected publication June 2, 2026

About the author

Michelle Payne entered racing aged 15, winning her first race in Ballarat on Reigning, a horse trained and owned by her father. She won her first Group 1 race, the 2009 Toorak Handicap, aboard Allez Wonder, trained by Bart Cummings. She rode the same horse in the Caulfield Cup the following week, becoming the third female jockey to ride in this race, and went on to ride Allez Wonder in the Melbourne Cup later that Spring Carnival. She rode Yosei to three Group 1 victories over the next two years.

Michelle became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup in 2015 on the local one-hundred-to-one horse, Prince of Penzance, trained by Darren Weir and strapped by her brother Stevie.
In January 2016 she was named The Australian newspaper’s Australian of the Year.

Film rights to her life story have been sold. She continues to be a working jockey and hopes to ride in the next Melbourne Cup.

Photo credit: Racing Victoria