Owner responds to Payne insult

Managing owner Brae Sokolski has fired back at Michelle Payne after the Melbourne Cup-winning jockey labelled him 'a pig' on Twitter for replacing Linda Meech as the rider of Thought Of That in Saturday's $2 million AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m).

Meech picked up the ride aboard Thought Of That as a five-start maiden and then won two races on him by an aggregate margin of 11.75 lengths, which saw the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained son of So You Think elevated to second favourite for the Derby.

Meech rode Thought Of That at Caulfield trackwork on Tuesday morning before learning of Sokolski's decision to enlist the services of Mark Zahra at her expense.

"You're entitled to an opinion. You are not entitled to challenge the right of an owner to make that decision," Sokolski told RSN927's Racing Pulse on Wednesday morning.

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Article written by: Carl Di Iorio