The Ozzies love a good drink from time to time (hence their accents, apparently), but they also love to bet on just about anything under the sun. They actually bet more per person than any other country in the world, so you’d imagine there are a few happy punters after one of the great stories of modern Australian sports.

The Melbourne Cup is the country’s most sought after horse-racing title and, for the first time in its 155 year history, a woman has been atop the winning horse. Her name is Michelle Payne and she’s a 30-year-old who didn’t hold back when giving her post-race interview. Below from the Guardian:

“It’s such a chauvinistic sport, a lot of the owners wanted to kick me off. Everyone else can get stuffed [who] think women aren’t good enough,” she said in her post-race interview…

“I would like to say that, you know, it’s a very male-dominated sport and people think we are not strong enough and all of the rest of it … you know what? It’s not all about strength, there is so much more involved, getting the horse into a rhythm, getting the horse to try for you, it’s being patient and I’m so glad to win Melbourne Cup and hopefully, it will help female jockeys from now on to get more of a go. Because, I believe that we sort of don’t get enough of a go and hopefully this will help.”

Her victory was the realisation of a life-long dream, the jockey having told her schoolmates many years ago that she would one day win the coveted title. The Payne family has racing in their blood, seven of her nine siblings having trained as jockeys at one point.

Get stuffed haters, history has been made.

[source:guardian]