This Tuesday, Katelyn Mallyon plans on making history as the second woman in just as many years to win the iconic Melbourne Cup. “It’s amazing that Michelle won it last year, and I’d love to follow in her footsteps and win it this year and yeah it will be amazing if I could for the second- second girl, female to win the Melbourne Cup, it would be extraordinary.”
Katelyn and ISWIS, Outstanding Woman In Sport Winner 2016, Michelle Payne, train together under thoroughbred owner Lloyd Williams. “Michelle took me under her wing when I was just starting as a 16 year old girl and yeah she’s been amazing.”
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Lloyd Williams believes that women in this largely male dominated sport are “equally as good as any of the boys that you want to mention. I’m happy to have these young ladies riding for me anytime at all.”
In 2012, Mallyon suffered a career-threatening fall at Flemington. On the home stretch of the gruelling race she clipped the heels of the horse in front causing her to fall headfirst, which broke her T6 vertebrae, lacerated her spleen and shattered her cheekbone. She was millimetres away from rupturing her spinal cord, which could have left her paralysed. The race left her sidelined for nine months with many fearing she would never race again.
“I can’t remember that whole- that whole week. You know I fell and I broke my back and my face and I was- I was put into a coma for four days. I really. It’s just a bit of a blank to me.” She told Sunday Night.
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Horse racing has been in the Mallyon family for over 50 years, Katelyn’s grandfather, Mick Mallyon, won three Caulfield Cups in the 1960s and 1970s.
In an interview with Sunday Night, Katelyn, spoke about the honour of riding in the iconic Melbourne Cup “It would mean the world to me. You know, I’ve dreamed of this my whole entire life….To be riding in the Melbourne Cup.”
Katelyn is the fifth woman to compete in the Melbourne Cup since 1861. She will ride Assign in navy blue and white in this year’s race.
Source: Women’s Health
