Winona Costin remembers sitting in the Flemington grandstand watching Michelle Payne make history by winning the Melbourne Cup and then feeling slightly disappointed.
The lightweight jockey did not immediately share the raw emotion that swept across the country when Payne uttered her powerful line: “They think women aren’t strong enough, but we just beat the world.”
Winona Costin is looking to emulate Michelle Payne by riding a 100-1 winner in Tuesday”s Melbourne Cup.Credit: Joe Armao
Instead of joining in the unbridled celebrations, Costin, who turned 30 on Friday, lamented her own missed opportunity.
“My first thought was ‘bugger’,” Costin said this week. “I thought, ‘I am not going to be the first female to win it now’.”
Despite those lofty ambitions, the determined Costin has had to wait nine years since that historic moment to have her first start in the Melbourne Cup.
The Hawkesbury based hoop, who turned 30 on Friday, drove to Melbourne across the weekend in preparation for Tuesday’s $8 million group 1 race. She will ride 100-1 outsider Positivity, trained by Andrew Forsman.
“I can’t wait to get out there,” she said. “It has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, and the dream is coming true.
“I think she is a really good chance, Positivity. I think she’ll get the trip no dramas.”
There will be a record four women lining up on the first Tuesday in November – Costin, Jamie Kah British hoop Hollie Doyle and the Sydney-based Rachel King.
It is a significant number not lost on Payne who has waited nine years for the next woman to join her as a winner of the country’s greatest race.
The Darren Weir-trained Prince Of Penzance won the Melbourne Cup for Michelle Payne in 2015.Credit: Getty Images
“Every year, they’re getting opportunities, and that’s what we fought for,” Payne said.
“So, to see one of them make the most of this opportunity and take it home would be an unbelievable moment.”
As the next generation of female riders continues to push through the glass ceiling – smashed by the likes of Payne, Clare Lindop, Kathy O’Hara and Katelyn Mallyon – the 15-time group 1-winning Kah is leading the way.
She has already realised her dream of riding in the Cup, coming agonisingly close at her first attempt in 2020, finding a late gap on Prince Of Arran to flash home for an unlucky third. She did not ride in 2021 and has finished 7th and 12th in the past two years.
On Tuesday, she will team up with trainer Ciaron Maher on last-start winner Okita Soushi – one of the leading chances in the Cup.
Kah deflected attention away from the possibility of being the first jockey home in Tuesday’s 3200m staying test. Instead, she preferred to talk about her horse and the key to riding in a staying race.
“Look, I’m more than happy to be joining Michelle and winning a Melbourne Cup,” Kah said. “But I feel like it’s unlucky to think about it until it happens.
“I’m just happy I’m on a genuine horse that will run the trip, and he’s also trained by an absolute master.
Jamie Kah will be aiming for her second group 1 win in four days after winning the Victoria Derby.Credit: Eddie Jim
“It’s a race that you have to switch off straight away and get your horse to settle. I think that’s the number one thing that you have to do in the Melbourne Cup. Because if your horse is pulling, it’s the end of story.”
While Costin and King, who will ride on South Australian runner The Map, are not fancied to win by form experts, Doyle will start alongside Kah as one of the favoured runners.
She flew into Melbourne on Monday in preparation to ride the Harry Eustace-trained import Sea King, which won last week’s Bendigo Cup and is owned by Terry Henderson’s Australian syndicator OTI.
Costin, who will have little trouble making Positivity’s 50kg weight, said she would approach the Melbourne Cup just like any of the other 23 riders, regardless of their gender.
“We are not really female riders any more, we are just jockeys, the same as everybody else,” Costin said.
“Obviously, some of us are a bit smaller in stature so it makes life easier when it comes to the weights, but other than that, I think we are all just equals.
“Everyone sees us as jockeys now, and not female jockeys.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
