Ahead of Australia's most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup, we go back 10 years to when Michelle Payne was the first, and so far only, female jockey to win the title.

Michelle, the youngest of 10 children, came from a racing family with seven of her siblings becoming jockeys. Throughout her career, she suffered a series of serious injuries that nearly forced her to retire, but her perseverance paid off when she won the race in 2015 on Prince of Penzance at 100-1 odds.

She tells Uma Doraiswamy about her part in racing history.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Michelle Payne winning the Melbourne Cup in 2015. Credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)