Yosei has been the headline horse in Michelle Payne's career and once again the multiple Group One-winning mare has the jockey excited about the campaign ahead.

Payne was forced to miss most of Yosei's spring preparation through injury but she will be back aboard when the mare continues her preparations for her 2013 return in a barrier trial at Werribee on Monday.

The Group One Tattersall's Tiara during the Brisbane winter carnival, which Yosei won in 2011, is the mare's main aim but a trip to Adelaide for the Robert Sangster Stakes on April 27 is also a possibility.

"She's in as good an order as she's ever been, nearly even the best she's ever been," Payne said ahead of Monday's 1000m trial.

"I'm just really excited to see how she trials and how she comes up. She's never let us down, every preparation she has come back well.

"I gallop her every week and I've given her a little jump-out at Caulfield and we're really happy with how she's going."

Yosei hasn't won since claiming her third Group One in the Tatt's Tiara two years ago.

But the five-year-old has been competitive in big races in recent preparations including a Doncaster Mile placing behind More Joyous and Shoot Out last autumn and a Toorak Handicap placing in the spring.

Payne was set to partner Yosei in the George Main Stakes in Sydney last September but a race fall at Ararat the day before, in which she aggravated a back injury and suffered concussion, ended the jockey's spring carnival and had her career in doubt.

She returned to race riding in late January after getting the all-clear from doctors and can't wait for Yosei's return.

"It was definitely hard to watch her and watch somebody else ride her (in the spring) but I'm just grateful that I can be back and hopefully this time be able to stick with her all the way through," Payne said.

Payne has been aboard Yosei in all her Group One wins and the Stuart Webb-trained mare was one of the motivating factors for the jockey returning to the saddle after her latest fall.

"I would have probably come back anyway, but she definitely made it a bit easier," Payne said.