Payne hopes 'team girls' can win at Ascot

Thursday 5 November 2015, 4:50pm

Michelle Payne's Melbourne Cup win has scored her an invite to Ascot's international jockeys' challenge.

And she's already hoping she can help "team girls" to another win in the Shergar Cup in August.

Payne will be part of the women's team in the annual jockeys' series and will compete against teams of invited jockeys from Great Britain, Ireland and the Rest of the World.

"That's awesome news," Payne told AAP.

"I was hoping that one day I would get asked.

"Last year I watched with so much pride that the girls beat all the boys in Ascot. Team girls can hopefully do it again."

Ascot representative Nick Smith is in Melbourne for the spring carnival and said Payne's historic victory on Prince Of Penzance convinced him to lock in her services.

"Normally we wait a little longer to issue invitations but when a lady wins the Melbourne Cup you invite her on the spot," Smith told Racing.com.

Payne has admired her brother-in-law Kerrin McEvoy riding in the Shergar Cup.

"I wish we had something like that here because it's really something special.

"I don't know that it beats the Melbourne Cup but I reckon it would be nearly second, and the Breeders' Cup would be in there somewhere and the Dubai World Cup.

"It's going to be absolutely fantastic and I can't believe I've got the opportunity to be able to participate all thanks to the Melbourne Cup."

– AAP

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