RV CEO Bernard Saundry sat down with Payne within days of her historic Melbourne Cup win last year and met separately with Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, over the rider's comments that – while colourful – were also serious.

Saundry's conversations with Jenkins, who was then Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, ultimately saw the chief, who is departing RV in December, join an affirmative action group.

Now, at the first anniversary of Payne's red-letter day, Saundry has set a high goal for elite racing, telling Fairfax Media women should fill at least half the spots in the state's top 50 jockey rankings which inevitably relates to who gets most rides.

There is daylight between Saundry's 50-50 target and the reality for women jockeys in 2016. Just six women feature in this year's top 50 as it stands, though Linda Meech – ranked second – has a peerless winning percentage of 24 per cent.

Table leader Dean Yendall and third-ranked Dwayne Dunn have strike rates of 19 per cent. In terms of their season earnings, however, Dunn leads by far: $3,249,195 compared to Yendall's $1,223, 780 and Meech's comparatively small $639,645, which tells the tale of their victory settings.

Saundry has expressed a degree of bewilderment about a glaring missing link when it comes to a relative dearth of women jockeys featuring regularly at racing's pointy end since winning permission to ride with men here in 1979.

RV has committed to developing programs internally to work with trainers in the industry since Payne's statements on chauvinism. In the past month RV, with some 150 employees, has also formed a steering committee to tackle its own diversity and inclusion shortcomings, acknowledging it can hardly preach what it is not practicing.

"Our challenge is how do we make sure there's a solid female representation in the top 50 jockeys in the state? We're going to find ways by talking to trainers, jockeys, country racing, to get an understanding of what are the things stopping more females from getting more opportunities," Saundry said.

"Ultimately we should strive, at a point in time, to have 50-50 … because it is a sport where men and women can compete equally.

"This takes a number of years but it's not the 'sport of kings', it's racing for all. That's what we want to live and breathe. That name has kind of stuck and I don't like it."

Saundry joined the elite sport Male Champions of Change group, originally convened by former Federal Equal Opportunity and Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, as a direct result of Payne's candid comments at the Cup last year. Since then, RV's board has also added a third female director, who joins seven men.

Coalface industry sources who spoke to Fairfax Media this week expressed the sense it is harder for women to get rides in Victoria than in other states.

South Australian Hall of Fame trainer Leon Macdonald, who has championed trailblazer Clare Lindop – the first Australian female to ride the Melbourne Cup, in 2007, and first to win the Victoria Derby, in 2008 – tabled that view.

The counter position, put by Victorian Jockeys Association boss Des O'Keeffe for one, is that riders make their own luck, albeit often with the championing of a particular trainer.

Saundry did not dismiss the notion that females might be more prone to being overlooked for mounts in Victoria, but pointed to a registered jockey pool considerably larger than in South Australia, for example.

In terms of cultural change, racing's disparate scene presents challenges given trainers and owners are stationed all over the country and ultimately determine jockey selection.

Katelyn Mallyon is set to become just the fourth female jockey picked to ride the Melbourne Cup and the lone female in this year's $6.2 million event, which was inaugurated in 1861.

In the past decade (since the 2006-07 season), women jockeys have ridden the main group 1 races at Flemington ­– the Victorian Derby, Melbourne Cup, and prime events on Oaks and Stakes Day – on just 14 occasions.

In just one of those races – the 2007 Melbourne Cup – have two women ridden in the same field.

Women and girls outnumber boys and men in equestrian sports and pony clubs in Australia. Stable-hand staff in Victoria are split 49-51 per cent female-male, according to RV.

The apprentice programs run by Racing Victoria have, in the last year just edged more than a 50-50 gender split in favour of women and female jockeys make up 23 per cent of Victoria's registered jockey pool, up from 10 per cent in 2005.