The news that Jimmy Orman has had his riding contract in Hong Kong extended to the end of the Hong Kong season has changed the dynamic of the chase for the 2024/25 Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership, a premiership which Orman has dominated over the last three seasons.
Orman’s hold on the Premiership, even up to a point this season, is underlined by the fact that, although has now had two weeks in Hong Kong, has spent a very short riding stint in Dubai earlier in the season and had to endure close to a month on the sidelines when a horse took a nip at him and tore the top of a finger off, he still currently leads this season’s Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership by two winners and three winners from Emily Lang and Angela Jones respectively.
With it being safe to assume that Orman will now not return to Brisbane unless in special circumstances, the news of Orman’s extended riding contract has turned this season’s Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership on its head … with all of Lang (43 winners), Jones (41 winners), Andrew Mallyon (32 winners) and Bailey Wheeler (31 winners) suddenly all thrust very much into the premiership mix.
And yet it could be a trainer, the multi-premiership winning Tony Gollan, who plays a crucial role in the final outcome.
Gollan makes good use of both Lang, who is apprenticed to the Gollan stable and who currently leads the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey Premiership, and Jones, who Gollan helped become the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey Premiership winner in the 2022/23 season and who he has continued to support with his runners playing their part in pushing Jones to finish fourth in the Brisbane Jockeys Premiership last season.
The talent of both of Lang and Jones, at different stages of their respective careers, has been supplemented by a strong work ethic which incorporates a willingness to take direction and learn … which has been a fundamental factor in their sure, steady and successful progress.
Twenty-three of Jones’ last fifty rides have been for Gollan. Twenty of Lang’s last fifty rides have been for Gollan. Those statistics are an important part of the story.
True, the finish line is still a long way off … there is still four-and-a-half months of the season left to run, but it could well come down to a fight between Lang and Jones when it matters most.
They have the edge at the moment. Mallyon and Wheeler are also there with a shout. They just have a bit of ground to make up.
Just as much as Orman has been given a new international opportunity, so too has the premiership landscape changed for these riders.
However this chase unfolds, it is now a new contest and one in which a lot of cut-and-thrust can be expected.
