Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne, who has been sidelined since being badly injured in a race fall at Mildura in May, is set to return to the saddle on Sunday.
The 30-year-old will renew her partnership with the Henry Dwyer-trained Lucky Liberty (Aus) (Statue Of Liberty), who is also returning from injury and has not run since finishing down the field in the G1 Australian Guineas in March 2015.
Payne, who has recently taken out a combined jockey-trainer licence, made history as the first female rider to win the G1 Emirates Melbourne Cup when guiding the Darren Weir-trained Prince Of Penzance (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) to victory in 2015. She has not been engaged to ride the 7-year-old gelding in Saturday's G1 Makybe Diva S. at Flemington. He will be ridden instead by John Allen.
Payne told Melbourne's Herald Sun, “I feel really good. I'd been hoping to come back to ride in the past two weeks and had been asking Darren [Weir] whether he had something good for me to come back on. I'm really fit. I've been riding trackwork for 10 weeks and I've also been running and doing gym work, but race riding will top me right off.”
Payne will also ride Birds Of Tokyo (Aus) (Nicconi {Aus}) for Luke Oliver at Sale.
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