Last year's longshot Cup winner has been sent for surgery on a fractured leg after finishing fourth in the Herbert Power Stakes behind Lloyd Williams galloper Assign.

The injury also means Payne, who became the first woman to ever win the Melbourne Cup when Darren Weir's outsider stunned the racing world last year, won't get the chance to fight for the ride on the galloper, who wrote himself into the history books with his 100-1 win that famous afternoon at Flemington.

Prince of Penzance will now need surgery and a long period of rest and recovery, so the chances are that the son of Pentire has run his last race.

On Saturday the gelding was beaten about three lengths by Assign, with John Allen - the Irish jockey who rides so many of trainer Weir's horses - on board.

Ironically, Payne was involved in the race which has so cruelly scotched the hopes of her owners and punters up and down the land who were dreaming of a fairytale repeat. She had to look on from the back of another runner, Dandy Gent, who finished last of the six runners.

Weir stable spokesman Jeremy Rogers initially said the stable was happy enough with the run.

Under a perfectly judged front running ride by Katie Mallyon, Assign made every post a winning one in the 2400-metre contest  to justify his spot as the $3.10 market elect, winning by a short half head from Big Memory (who had won this event two years earlier) with Pemberley a further neck adrift.

The margin might have been of the minimum variety, but Mallyon believes the son of Montjeu, whom Williams bought from the Coolmore group, won a shade cosily.

Nick Williams says that he could now give his young female rider her first Melbourne Cup ride - if he can justify his place in the race by winning a country cup along the way to earn a penalty that will elevate him into the field.

Williams trainer Robert Hickmott was winning this contest for the fourth time in seven years and Nick Williams believes the son of Montjeu has plenty of upside given that he had only had 13 starts before Saturday.

"As soon as he got clear he was sort of waiting for the others. You can see the way he came back, he wouldn't have blown out a candle.

"I think he won with plenty in hand but I don't think he's  a horse that wants to do more than he has to.

"He won't get into the Cup at the moment with 50 kilograms. I think in reality he probably gets somewhere between half a kilo and a kilo [penalty] based on the history of this race. I would say we will probably head towards the Bendigo Cup, he looks ideally suited to that sort of race for me.

"He's a beauty, he's one that we bought off the gang at Ballydoyle ... he was trained by Aidan O'Brien."

With Scott Spits