Life As I Know It by Michelle Payne Page B

debut at Ballarat, my 3-kilogram claim looked good to owners and trainers. The phone kept ringing.
    My second day of racing was at Warracknabeal, about two-anda-half hours northwest of Ballarat, and I was booked for six rides. My sisters loved Warracknabeal, a classic country track, but I had a shocker of a day. I was thrown in the deep end. One horse took off on me and led by eight lengths and basically carried me around. Generally the racing there was rough, which I just wasn’t prepared for. I was getting bumped around all over the place. Nothing like that had happened in trials. I just didn’t have the awareness; no race smarts whatsoever. I was devastated. It did my reputationno good, and no doubt it fed the prejudices of some trainers and punters who thought female jockeys were a risk.
    Dad was concerned too.
    â€˜All the other kids showed a bit of promise, but I don’t think you’ve got it. Maybe you should go back to school. You’re good at school.’ That made me all the more determined. I was going to show him. He probably knew it would get a rise out of me. He’d used that tactic on the older ones. He once said that all Maree could do was put a leg on either side of a horse and move her little fingers.
    Dad told me I had to practise on the chaff bag. I would practise my style with the whip but I had to find the rhythm of the horse. I stuck at it. Dad believed in technique and he helped me a lot with this. And I’d spend a lot of my time talking to Andrew. He gave me good advice. He liked talking about racing craft and he wanted to see me improve. Andrew was a typical older brother when we were growing up because he picked on me so much and loved making me cry, but when the time came for me to be a jockey he really couldn’t have been more helpful. I can’t thank him enough for that support. He bought an equiciser (a mechanical horse) more for himself but he would make me get on it for practice all the time. He later gave it to me. I called it Our Paddy Boy and still have it to this day.
    There was no substitute for race riding, though. Like all young jockeys I had to get a feel for how to ride in a field where every jockey was doing their best to win the race. While the rules of racing are very strict, the experienced jockeys have all the tricks. They have a personal interest in beating you. The ride you get from a trainer is the ride that jockey had missed out on.
    Some jockeys offered suggestions, or an encouraging word, and my sisters and brothers were fantastic. Cathy was very supportive, even though she was living in Melbourne and we were often bidding for the same rides in the country. She was still a goodadvocate for me. After riding one for the Maldon trainer Brian McKnight, Cathy suggested he should engage me as I could claim the 3 kilograms. I rode two winners for Brian that day, and seven more soon after. I was in his good books and became his rider. We had many wins, thanks to Cathy. She didn’t ride for him much after that but she laughs about it now.
    Not long after I started riding in races and I was getting more rides, Dad thought it was a good idea to get me a manager. He asked his friend Joan Sadler if she would take the job on. Joan was apprehensive initially, as she had never been a manager before, but she said she’d give it a go. She took all of the requests from trainers and helped me find rides, mainly on the phone. She is such a generous and warm-hearted woman, and she really looked after me. We grew very close. She was so supportive, and a great listener—and talker! Joan also started managing Cathy and became like a mother to us. We used to joke that all we needed to do was sign the adoption papers.
    Therese, Maree and Cathy lived in Melbourne and were riding for city and country trainers with good success. When I started going to Melbourne to do some trackwork in the second year of my apprenticeship, I’d stay with either Maree or