Craig Kerry
When David Payne was approached by the same batch of owner-breeders who gave him subsequent four-time group 1 winner Montefilia about his interest in a skinny full-sister to Queensland Oaks winner Gypsy Goddess, the veteran trainer gave them a blunt assessment.
“They wanted me to buy at the sale and they wanted 300-odd thousand,” Payne said after Proxima Dea’s third consecutive win.
“I looked at it and I said, no, come on. Too much.”
The Transtasman Breeders group of Andy Giles, Hugh Docherty and Caroline Vincent retained the Tarzino-Invisible Coin filly through top trainer Ciaron Maher, who paid the $300,000 reserve at the 2025 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and took her on. The ownership group bought dam Invisible Coin on the back of its success with Montefilia and before Gypsy Goddess had broken through.
Months later, the group asked Payne to take over the unraced filly, which is now unbeaten in four starts and poised to give the 78-year-old trainer a first group 1 win since Montefilia’s 2022 Ranvet Stakes victory on Saturday in the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick.
“She wasn’t much to look at, but horses, they make fools of you,” Payne said of the young Proxima Dea, which he still described as ugly after her group 3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) win last start.
“They bred her and wanted to put a reserve of $300,000 of her. At that stage, I think Ciaron Maher must have thought the same. He took it on and couldn’t put it together, I suppose, so they asked me to train it.
“You just never know, with what goes around. It’s a funny game.
“We gave her four or five trials to work her out, but being a stayer, they take time and when we ran her first-up, I thought she’d run a nice race, but she ended up winning, and she’s just kept winning.”
Payne has won the Spring Champion with Montefilia in 2020 and colt Ace High in 2017. Proxima Dea was $5 (TAB) to give him another victory in the three-year-old staying test, and a $3.50 favourite for the main target, the VRC Oaks (2500m) on November 5 at Flemington.
“She’d bred to stay very well, so you would think the further, the better for her,” Payne said.
“It’s been a lucky race for us. Montefilia was a much bigger, stronger filly, but it’s still early days. She might develop, you never know.”
Payne also has Ming Dynasty Quality winner Persian Wonder ($19) in the Spring Champion. He was one that Payne did buy, for $160,000, at the same Inglis sale. The gelding, with two wins in 11 starts, earned a shot at the group 1 when less than two lengths away in sixth in the Gloaming.
“It was a good run because it was a muddling race, a slow pace and he was coming home strong, so we’ll step him up and I think he will run well,” Payne said.
“We’ll see how he goes, if he runs well, I might put him in the [Victoria] Derby [on October 31].
“They are both well and are happy, healthy horses.”
The pair and Furious and Tea Rose Stakes winner Bangkok Hottie, which was third in the group 1 Flight Stakes before going for a spell, have led a memorable resurgence from Payne’s boutique Rosehill stable.
The former champion South African trainer and jockey, who relocated to Australia in 2002, has relished the success against the major stables and shows no signs of slowing down.
“I’ve been around a long time, and it’s just the challenge,” he said.
“At the sales, we buy the cheapies and it’s nice when it works out. It doesn’t always. Numbers beat you usually. They have big numbers and we keep only 16 in work, so you are taking on hundreds of horses from different stables, but we’ve been lucky this year, touch wood.
“I’m going to be 79 in January, and I’ve got to have something to do, and I enjoy this.
“I mean, who would think they would still be working [at 78], but I love it. I’ve got good clients who look after me and let me do my thing.
“Otherwise, what would you be doing? Without work, you can only get up and go for a walk and a coffee, and then you’ve got the rest of the day. If you travel, you’re away for a few weeks, then you are back, so you’ve got to have something to do.”
John Sargent-trained Flight Stakes winner Global Goal was a $2.90 favourite for the Spring Champion. Payne’s pair are yet to face her.
“She’s a very good filly, any filly that wins the Flight Stakes like her,” Payne said.
“She’s going to be hard to beat.”