For almost half a century, Paddy Payne’s name was woven into the fabric of Australian horse racing.

But behind the winners, the Melbourne Cup history and the famous Payne surname was a much more personal legacy — the family he and his wife Mary built, and the children who would go on to make their own mark on the sport.

Paddy Payne Snr, the beloved Ballarat horseman and patriarch of the Payne racing family, has died aged 90.

He leaves behind a remarkable story of horses, family, heartbreak and extraordinary resilience — one that began long before his youngest daughter Michelle became a household name.

A family unlike any other

Paddy and his late wife Mary had 10 children, and eight of them went on to become professional jockeys.

That included Patrick, who enjoyed Group 1 success both in the saddle and later as a trainer, and Michelle, who would make Australian racing history.

But the story of the Payne children was never simply about their achievements on the track.

For Paddy, family remained at the heart of everything.

In a 2024 conversation with Racing.com, he reflected on what made him proudest after all those years.

If he walked into a gathering and saw several of his children standing together, laughing and happy, he said that was when he felt they had “done all right.”

It was a remarkably simple measure of success from a man whose family had achieved so much.

The horse that changed everything

Paddy’s own journey began in Hawera, New Zealand, where he grew up and later worked as a dairy farmer while training racehorses.

In the late 1970s, he bought a horse called Our Paddy Boy for just $1,300.

The horse was broken in on the family dairy farm and went on to win the 1980 Group 1 Ellerslie Sires’ Produce Stakes.

Paddy eventually sold Our Paddy Boy to prominent owner Robert Sangster for $300,000 — an extraordinary sum at the time.

That sale helped provide the catalyst for the Payne family’s move to Australia in the early 1980s, where they established their home and stables at Miners Rest near Ballarat.

It was there that the Payne family story would grow into something much bigger.

Then came the loss that changed the family

In 1986, Mary was killed in a car accident.

Michelle was only six months old.

Paddy was left to raise their 10 children, and the family had to find a way forward without the woman at its centre.

Years later, Paddy remembered Mary as “the love of my life” and recalled how the family decided they had to keep going and give it their best.

Michelle also remembered the extraordinary role her older siblings played.

Brigid moved away from home to become an apprentice, while Therese stepped into a maternal role. Bernadette, just 11 at the time, would even get up during the night to help care for Michelle.

It was, as Michelle recalled, something her older siblings simply did — without fuss, because the family needed them to.

That history would remain part of the Payne family story for decades.

The children who followed their father into racing

Eight of Paddy and Mary’s 10 children became professional jockeys, an extraordinary family achievement in its own right.

Patrick went on to become one of the most respected names in Australian racing, winning the 2002 Cox Plate aboard Northerly before later building a successful training career.

Michelle became the face of another historic moment.

In 2015, aboard Prince Of Penzance, she became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

And Paddy was never among those who dismissed the horse’s chances.

While many punters looked elsewhere, he believed Prince Of Penzance had a genuine chance of winning Australia’s biggest race.

When Michelle finally lifted the Melbourne Cup, her brother Stevie was there alongside her as strapper — another deeply personal part of a victory that had become much bigger than one race.

The moment was later brought to the screen in Ride Like a Girl, with the late Sam Neill portraying Paddy.

A father who believed in his daughters

Perhaps one of Paddy’s most lasting contributions was the belief he instilled in his daughters.

Racing.com noted that he encouraged them from a young age to believe they could compete with male riders — at a time when that was far from a common view within the industry.

Several of his daughters went on to ride professionally.

Michelle’s Melbourne Cup victory therefore represented more than a historic personal achievement. It was also part of a much longer family story built on a father’s belief that his daughters belonged in the saddle just as much as anyone else.

A family that knew both joy and loss

The Payne family story also carried profound sadness.

Mary died in 1986. Paddy later lost daughter Brigid in 2007, and another daughter, Bernadette, in 2025. Both women had been jockeys.

Yet Paddy continued to speak about the closeness of his family and the happiness he found in seeing his children together.

That may be one of the most revealing parts of his legacy.

For a man whose family produced Group 1 winners, Melbourne Cup history and thousands of victories between them, his own definition of having “done all right” was simply seeing his children happy together.

He never really left the horses behind

Even as he approached 90, Paddy remained connected to racing.

Racing Victoria described him as a horseman who continued training on a relatively small scale, earning respect through a modest team that often consisted of inexpensive or tried horses.

His connection to the sport lasted for more than four decades.

And perhaps fittingly, horses remained part of his life almost to the very end.

Now, Paddy Payne’s racing career has come to its final chapter.

But the story he leaves behind is not contained in the trophies, the race records or even the Melbourne Cup.

It lives in 10 children.

In the eight who followed him into the saddle.

In Patrick’s Group 1 success.

In Michelle’s history-making Melbourne Cup.

In the daughters he encouraged to believe they could compete in a world that did not always make room for them.

And in the family gatherings that Paddy himself regarded as one of life’s greatest rewards.

After his death, Michelle shared a simple farewell to her father:

“RIP Dad. You finally get to go and see Mum again.”

After everything Paddy Payne and his family had lived through, those few words brought his story back to where it had begun — with Paddy and Mary, and the family they built together.

And perhaps that is the part of his legacy that will remain long after the last race has been run.