Hammond celebrates on Michelle Payne’s Prince

Riding a city winner has been Rose Hammond’s dream from the moment she decided she wanted to be a jockey, but never did she think her maiden metro success would be as special as it was.

The Echuca apprentice teamed with her childhood idol, Michelle Payne, to bring up the milestone at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

The 22-year-old delivered a gem of a ride aboard Princeofnottingham, who the 2015 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey trains in partnership with her brother Patrick, to win the $130,000 Ladbrokes Form Genius BM84 Handicap (1600m).

“I’m just so excited, I just really wanted to get this out of the way,” an emotional Hammond said.

“It means a lot to me and I love racing. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve had a lot of setbacks and injuries and it’s all I’ve wanted to do, so I’m just so grateful.

“I looked up to Michelle my whole life, so to get my first city winner for her is unbelievable.”

Hammond’s maiden city success was the 56th win of a career that started in November 2022 and came almost two years to the day after her maiden victory – which came aboard Bon Shadow for Gwenda Johnstone, to whom she is apprenticed, on Boxing Day 2022.

Hammond found the position one-out, one-back aboard Princeofnottingham, edged three-wide before the 600m and crept her way towards leader Van Roy and while that $26 chance put up a fight, Hammond was able to get her $12 betting apps chance home to a narrow win.

Payne said Hammond’s 3kg claim was crucial to Princeofnottingham’s win, his second from as many starts over 1600m at The Valley after a BM64 win under 59.5kg and Tom Prebble two starts ago.

“The step up in grade was a bit of a concern, but the light weight that Rose was able to bring him down to with 51.5kg really suited him,” Payne said.

“It was just a really lovely ride by her and win by the horse.”