Payne arrived in the ACT on Thursday ahead of her 900-metre stint as the Queen's baton relay continues its journey to the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games in April.

She was honoured to be part of the relay that takes the baton containing the Queen's message from Buckingham Palace and around the world to the opening ceremony.

While the 32-year-old still rides a few races, she's switched her main focus to training and holds a dual licence in Victoria.

But Racing NSW opposed dual licences, meaning Payne's banned from riding in there.

Given Canberra racing's governed by Racing NSW's rules, that means she's also banned from riding in the ACT.

Thankfully, the Queen, a noted horse lover, doesn't have a similar ban to stop the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup from taking part in the relay.

"It's a huge honour. I'm a very proud Australian so it's great to have the Commonwealth Games back here in Australia and also being a sports person I love watching any kind of sports, people trying to achieve their best in anything," said Payne, a Longines ambassador.

"It's a real honour being part of it. It's something that I've grown up watching ... I love watching the running and the swimming, that's my favourite."

Payne still can't understand why she can ride in some states, but was banned from others.

She felt there should be uniform rules across Australia.

"I think that would be the best thing. We're one country, I don't understand why we don't race under the same rules, it doesn't seem to make sense," she said.

"It's something that can hopefully be looked at in the future because it just seems the logical thing to race under one banner of rules."

Payne broke through the glass ceiling when she rode Prince Of Penzance to victory in the 2015 Cup.

In the wake of her historic win, she famously said racing was a "chauvinistic sport" and told all her doubters to "get stuffed".

Two years on and Sydney hoop Kathy O'Hara became just the sixth woman to ride in the race that stops a nation when she was onboard Canberra trainer Nick Olive's Single Gaze in the $6 million Cup.

Katelyn Mallyon was the only other female jockey to ride in Australia's holy trinity of racing - the Melbourne Cup, the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate - in 2017.

There were no female jockeys in the inaugural running of the $10million Everest.

But Payne felt things were improving.

"Jamie Kah's doing really well in Adelaide, she was the leading rider there last year, and Linda Meech has always done really well in Victoria in the country, but doesn't quite get the opportunities in the metropolitan areas," she said.

"I think we're definitely making inroads and it's nice to show the younger girls coming through if you work really hard anything's possible. That's the nice thing."