Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne has returned to riding after a career-threatening race fall in May.

Payne — who won last year's Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance — required pancreatic surgery after the fall at Mildura.

Her father, Paddy Payne, said she got back in the saddle at Ballarat on Wednesday.

"She's going very well. She actually rode 10 horses yesterday morning," he said.

"She's in fine form. She's doing a lot of exercise and she's going really well."

Mr Payne said she had done very well to recover so quickly and although she had no races booked yet, he hoped she would be back racing in about four weeks time.

Payne complained of abdominal pain after the Mildura fall and was flown to hospital in Melbourne for surgery.

She has previously had two horror falls, one in 2004 that left her with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain and another one in 2012 when she broke four vertebrae and several ribs in a race fall at Donald, Victoria.

Payne, the youngest of ten siblings from a famous racing family, missed rides in Europe, including Royal Ascot, during a planned two-month break from racing.