The youngest daughter of Paddy and Mary Payne, Payne grew up on a farm at Miners Rest, a locality near Ballarat in central Victoria, Australia. Her mother Mary died in a motor vehicle crash when Payne was six months old, leaving her father Paddy to raise their ten children as a single father.
She has Irish Australian heritage. In March 2004, Payne fell heavily at a race in Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne, fracturing her skull and bruising her brain. As a result of her prolonged recovery period—including a further fall where she fractured her wrist—Payne was granted a three-month extension to her apprenticeship to allow her time to ride out her claim.
The horse was placed 16th in the field of 23.
In 2010 Payne rode Yosei to victory in the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield. In 2015 she gained national attention when she rode the winning horse in two races at Melbourne Cup carnival at the Flemington Racecourse.
Payne said she was "floating on the cloud and it"s a nice feeling". The training strategy she used in the lead-up to the race included a focus on galloping, and a consistent horse-jockey relationship.
".."you know what?" Payne asked.
"lieutenant"s not all about strength, there is so much more involved, getting the horse to try for you, it"s being patient."
She was also the fourth woman to ride in the race and was coincidentally wearing the colours of the suffragette movement: purple, green and white. Her short speech about the capability of women in sport was described as "unambiguous and galvanising". The victory was a surprise for bookmakers and speechmakers.
She won the 2015 Melbourne Cup, riding Prince of Penzance, and was the first female jockey to win the event. Payne dreamt of being a winning jockey as a child, and, aged seven, told friends she would one day win the Melbourne Cup. She won in her first race at Ballarat, aboard Reigning—a horse trained by her father. Payne won her first Group One race, the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield Racecourse aboard Allez Wonder on 10 October 2009, and trainer Baronet Cummings offered her the ride at the Caulfield Cup the following week. Payne was the third female jockey to ride in the Caulfield Cup. As a first-timer in the 2009 Melbourne Cup, she rode Cummings" Allez Wonder with a riding weight of 50.5 kg. One of them was the Hilton Hotels Stakes and the other was the Melbourne Cup itself. Payne won the Melbourne Cup on 3 November 2015, riding Prince of Penzance, a six-year-old gelding with which she had a long-term association. Payne was the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup in its 155-year history. In an interview shortly after her Melbourne Cup win, Payne said that horse racing is a "chauvinistic sport". She later stated that she hopes her win "helps female jockeys". The horse, bought for $50,000 (a figure described by sportswriters as "pocket change" for horseflesh) was a long odds chance at 100–1, and afterwards Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and other speechmakers were criticised for failing to adapt their pre-prepared congratulations to acknowledge the historic nature of the win.
