Dressed in purple – aptly – and looking every bit red-carpet movie star, Michelle Payne held her latest trophy and posed for photographers.
This was her biggest collect since the internationally coveted Cup she'd won 12 months earlier and, in a room of 1000 guests gathered in black-tie finery, she'd received a standing ovation for it.
A veritable who's who of Australian sport filled the room that night two weeks ago. Dawn Fraser, Ron Barassi, Ian Thorpe, Robert de Castella, Wally Lewis, Anna Meares. The Sport Australia hall of fame had awarded Payne the esteemed Don prize for the performance adjudged most inspiring to the nation in the past 12 months. A jockey in a summer Olympics year, no less.
In opening the occasion America's Cup legend John Bertrand pronounced a "tsunami" had hit Australia in the last year – "it's called women's sport", he declared. On Bertrand's timeline Payne was a watershed bookend.
After that masterful ride to Melbourne Cup glory atop 100-1 outsider Prince of Penzance, Payne endeared herself to the world. She shared her deep affection for her trusty strapper brother, Stevie, and upon victory said her doubters could officially "get stuffed".
Without naming them, Payne shamed those who were "keen to kick me off". They were "some of the owners" in a "chauvinistic sport". Fast-forward 12 months and here she stands, VIP, at the Sport Australia dinner, almost unrecognisable in formal get-up, Don award freshly in hands.
Visibly buzzing but composing herself for interviews, Payne was asked: what has changed since that red-letter day at Flemington last November?
"Everything, basically," she said.
"I couldn't pick out one thing … it definitely is a life-changing race."
Life-changing? No doubt. Whether from Ballarat or the Aussie bush.
Game-changing? Well, the evidence from the last 12 months would suggest not entirely.
Payne will be at Tuesday's Melbourne Cup but, barring an unforeseen late call-up, not in the way she envisaged or wants to be. She will be part of formalities but not in the main event's competitive action.
Payne let it be known, after winning the Don prize, she feels fit enough, conditioned enough – not to mention worthy – of a Cup mount 12 months after she smashed a glass ceiling that appeared triple glazed. She was diplomatic, but a quiet frustration was detected.
Is the fact she's consigned to role as Cup spectator purely circumstantial? Due to a fall, in May, that saw her hospitalised for two weeks after pancreatic surgery and caused her father to suggest, "it might be time to get married and have a few kids and just take a break"?
Payne only returned to racing in September. Then, in October, Prince of Penzance broke down, removing her most obvious – if not guaranteed – 2016 Melbourne Cup ticket to ride.
This question would not be worth asking if Payne had not revealed this time last year that, even when at the top of her game results and fitness-wise, there were forces that would have bumped her for a man in the Cup.
"On the back of that ride she should get more Melbourne Cup rides," Sandy McGregor, one of Prince of Penzance's owners, declared in the sweet afterglow last November.
"She's ridden an 11 out of 10 ride in a Melbourne Cup, she's going to get a lot more rides. No doubt."
Well, not without a miracle this year.
Katelyn Mallyon is the lone female set to represent in this year's race, becoming just the fourth picked for an event inaugurated in 1861 but that women were not permitted to ride in until 1979.
Victorian Jockeys' Association boss Des O'Keeffe scoffed this week at the notion Payne had been denied a Cup rerun for any reason related to gender.
"That is absolutely my view," he said.
But what becomes clear with a little surface scratching is that while Payne's equality shout-out resonated with the public there has been backlash within her industry.
Fairfax Media has spoken to a number of coalface racing insiders who say while Payne's "celebrity" has skyrocketed – England and Ireland have taken to the story particularly keenly - it has not helped the pursuit closest to her heart: racing. Several spoke in tall-poppy terms though none was prepared to put their private views on record.
Asked whether he thought it was good that Payne broached an uncomfortable topic in the moment like she did, O'Keeffe was adamant: "If she feels that, yes, absolutely it is.
"There are people in the industry who certainly wouldn't be of her view. They're normally 50-plus-year-old males in senior positions, but she's the one living the life."
Racing Victoria CEO Bernard Saundry, leaving the position in December, sounded slightly more circumspect when presented with same question: "I'm happy for her to say it. She said what she wanted to say and I respect that position. And if it's dragged more attention to some of the issues we've got, so be it and that's fine."
Joining affirmative action group the Elite Sport Male Champions of Change, first convened by ex-federal sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, as a direct result of Payne's "get stuffed" comments, Saundry is convinced – like O'Keeffe is – that gender isn't a factor in her being overlooked for Tuesday.
"I think the easiest answer to that is she's come back from a serious injury," Saundry said.
"She's no different from any other male or female jockey that has to get back and get fit, get the riding opportunities and at the same time convince any owner or trainer that she's fit enough and ready to ride in the biggest race of the year.
"Last year she was riding on a regular basis leading into the Cup. So I don't see it as a gender issue."
Hall of fame trainer Leon Macdonald has an insightful take. He is the man who put the first Australian woman jockey in the Melbourne Cup: Clare Lindop, in 2007.
Lindop is the first – and only – female winner of the Victoria Derby, a feat achieved in 2008 on Rebel Raider.
"I think it has changed a bit for them but it has probably changed more so in Adelaide," Macdonald told Fairfax in the Flemington carnival countdown.
"I think the eastern states are still not as forthcoming with female riders as they could be. In Victoria it's still male-dominated. I don't think there is any doubt about that."
Why?
"It's probably a bit of a mindset. That, if you want to put it in racing terms, a good colt always beats a good filly," Macdonald said.
Statistics from 2016 alone fly in the face of this.
Linda Meech sits second on the Victorian jockeys' top 50, based on wins this season. Her 36 victories from 152 starts give her a peerless winning strike rate of 24 per cent.
Macdonald says of Meech: "She rides a lot of winners in Victorian country. She hasn't had the recognition she deserves in Melbourne."
In South Australia, Jamie Kah, 20, won more races in 2015-16 than any other jockey in her state, with 107. She was jockey of the year and tied for her second John Letts Medal, in September.
Lindop – already a two-time winner of the honour – placed third.
That's just a sample. Elsewhere there's Kathy O'Hara, Tegan Harrison, Lucy Warwick.
Has Payne's victory changed things for them in the last 12 months?
"No, I think it has gradually changed," Macdonald said, adding he thinks we should be seeing more of those female jockeys at Flemington this spring.
"They're among the best. They've proven they're very capable."
To the question of what Payne's Cup triumph has done to advance her own racing career, Macdonald said: "I don't think it's done as much for her as a jockey as it did for Clare [after her Derby win]. Michelle's been a celebrity ever since, but I don't think it has kicked her along to get a lot of rides."
The revered trainer and clear champion of female jockeys is of firm mind, however, that Payne has been overlooked for this year's Cup because of her traumatic mid-year injury.
Racing Victoria points to encouraging signs for female jockeys since Payne's breakthrough.
There are fewer registered female jockeys in the state this year than last – 52 compared to 54 – but the percentage is larger in 2016: 26.8 per cent females in the pool compared to 23.
Ten years ago there were just 27 female jockeys registered in Victoria or 12 per cent membership.
Australia's current Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins met RV's Saundry after Payne opened the chauvinism hornet's nest last year.
"He seemed very much open to trying to do things better," Jenkins said this week.
"My recollection was that the main impediment was that with the dispersed nature of the industry they only had finite influence."
No racing buff but a sport fan and AFL club director, Jenkins terms Payne's Cup win "really important" in the small and larger picture.
"There's a lot of sexism still in sporting codes," she said.
Jenkins pointed to research conducted within Victoria Police last year that revealed 73 per cent of women employees believe gender discrimination affects them compared to just 46 per cent of men who believed women were impeded that way.
It explains, to her, why Payne – perversely – may have suffered within her industry as result of her success and outspokenness. Jenkins strongly suspects she has.
"I would suggest there isn't a critical mass yet, in racing, supporting change.
"They might not say it out loud but the backlash is driven, I think, by people fundamentally not agreeing that women should get more opportunity; a fundamental belief that men are better at sport and more people want to watch men rather than women.
"Michelle's had the support as a public figure that has followed in a way comparable to how it would follow men. But only she could tell you about whether she actually, within the sport, saw any traction or change. I suspect her answer is going to be no."
Payne spoke candidly to Fairfax Media in 2007, in an extended interview about sexism in her sport, saying: "You still get some trainers that don't tell the owner that you're available because they don't want to put you on. Some men are chauvinist and I've been told that we're inferior ... so it's like you're a handicap."
She was unavailable for long-form interview for this story. Not committing, according to her management, to any in-depth press sittings until after this week's Flemington smorgasbord. The dream of a late Cup berth is not extinguished and she is a jockey first and foremost. Fair enough.
But once this carnival is over, and the time is right for reflections on the year since her whistleblowing, we'll be all ears.
"I think myself that I could do as good a job as any male jockey, but it's just perceived that we're weaker.
"You still get some trainers that don't tell the owner that you're available because they don't want to put you on.
"Some men are chauvinist and I've been told that we're inferior ... so it's like you're a handicap which, I think, is not true, but you've just got to try to do your best to change their minds."
MICHELLE PAYNE - speaking to Fairfax Media in 2007, then aged 21
FEMALE JOCKEYS ... IN MELBOURNE CUPS
* The Cup was inaugurated in 1861, but it wasn't until 1979 that women were permitted to register for races against men.
* Three women have ridden the Cup: Clare Lindop (2007, 2008), Lisa Cropp (2007, 2011), Michelle Payne (2009, 2015).
* Katelyn Mallyon is set to become the fourth on Tuesday.
... IN GROUP 1 RACES
* Six female jockeys have won group 1 races in Australia: Michelle Payne, Nikita Beriman, Kathy O'Hara, Clare Lindop, Lauren Stojakovic, Linda Meech.
... IN VICTORIA THIS YEAR
* Six feature in the top 50 Victorian jockey rankings to date this season: Linda Meech (2nd), Georgina Cartwright (29th), Tahlia Hope (32nd), Chelsea Hall (38th), Jackie Beriman (40th) and Katelyn Mallyon (50th).
MICHELLE PAYNE, 31
* Four winners from 30 starts this season. Could not race after fall in May. Comeback in Septmeber.
* 741 career winners.
LINDA MEECH
* Currently ranked second in Victorian jockey standings: remarkable 23.68 per cent winning strike-rate with 23 winners from 137 rides this season to date.
* 1286 career winners, and more than 100 winners four times over the past seven years.
KATELYN MALLYON, 22
* Set to be only woman riding in this year's Melbourne Cup
* Six winners from 63 starts this season.
* 236 career winners.
* Two-time winner of Victorian Apprentices Premiership – the first female to do so.
