It wasn’t a great day for racing at Doomben on Saturday.
The general gloom, the arrival of a storm which delayed the program mid-meeting, and the early postponement of the last race shortly after that when it was realised conditions would be too dark at the time to complete the nine-race card, all combined to literally put a damper on proceedings.
But, amidst all of that Angela Jones landed a win aboard the Ciaron Maher trained Space Age which could well turn out to be the win that will clinch the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership after her protracted struggle with Emily Lang over the last six weeks.
Jones now leads the premiership by two wins and has more second place finishes to her credit than Lang which puts her in the pound sets should there be a need for a countback. It effectively means that Lang will have to ride three winners more than Jones on Wednesday at the final meeting of the metropolitan season to earn win the title.
While Lang has displayed resilience and character over and over again, tenaciously staying in the fight, the task facing her is suddenly immeasurably more difficult than ever before.
Acceptances for Wednesday’s meeting will only come out tomorrow and we will know more then about how the final moves in the Premiership might play out.
Jones’ win on Maher’s horse on Saturday would have been a hard watch from the jockey’s room for Lang, who originally also had a ride for Maher in the race aboard Nana’s Wish where she looked to have every chance with the mare having won two of her last three starts.
But Lang’s option to compete in that particular race was taken away when Maher scratched Nana’s Wish. Had Nana’s Wish run and won, Lang would now be level with Jones on number of wins.
‘What might have been’ doesn’t apply, of course, but this one race example does show how much of racing in general and, in this case a Premierships battle in particular, can be a game of fine lines.
In the latter part of the day two other horses that Lang was due to ride … Set To Shine and Light Of Boom … were also scratched.
It just wasn’t going to be her day.
It has now come down to one last hurrah for the Premiership on Wednesday.
Whatever happens there, this season has produced a massive effort from both Jones and Lang, who have both returned a set of high-achiever results of which they should be suitably proud.
