Champion jockey Glen Boss has said comments he made about his Melbourne Cup winning colleague, Michelle Payne, were taken out of context.

Payne ruffled feathers in the racing industry following her historic win on Tuesday, labelling the racing industry “chauvinistic”.

“I want to say to everyone else, get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world,” she said, after becoming the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup.

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Boss, who took Makybe Diva to three Melbourne Cup victories, spoke to News Limited and was quoted as saying Payne “had a bee in her bonnet and decided to air it”.

“(In the emotion of the ­moment) a lot of things are said and done and probably she’ll reflect on it in a couple days and say ‘Maybe I could have handled it better’, maybe not,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s fair to say it still will be a male-dominated sport, that’s the way it’s been for a long time and the sooner people get their heads around that the better.”

But in a story with Fairfax Media later the same day, Boss said his comments had been taken out of context.

He said himself and Payne were “good friends” and he was “hung out to dry” by the news report.

“I admire her so much. She’s an amazing horsewoman, she’s been told by doctors she shouldn’t be riding after a fall and her character has got her back,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“In the context of what was said about the boys club, I said, as far as I’m concerned, there is no boys club. Yes, it’s a male dominated sport. That’s the truth of the thing.

“But 20 years ago there were no women riding. It was 100 per cent male. Now it would be about 80 per cent.”