When I was in high school, there were two major events that
were deemed so important that our class was halted just so we could crowd
around the wheeled-in television to witness them. The first was then-Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” speech, apologising for the systemic
racially-biased treatment of the Indigenous population of Australia. The other
was the Melbourne Cup, with all of us taking lots to see if our
arbitrarily-chosen horse won.
It’s a sporting event that stops the nation, one of the
closest traditions we have to the NFL Superbowl, and it’s one that has
continued to sour in my memory over my lifetime, considering how it plays into
our cultural history. Today’s film, a biopic about Michelle Payne, the
first-ever female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, is the first feature in a
while that has outright forced me to consider the real-life side of the story
being presented.
