On Saturday, Emily Lang, the current Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership leader, will be looking to put her name on the Queensland Guineas winners roll when she gets her chance on the Tony Gollan trained Boomtown Boss.
Lang, who moved to the powerful Gollan stable at the start of the season, has already won four times from five rides on Boomtown Boss and Gollan had no hesitation in keeping Lang on for the Guineas.
“When I leg Emily up on Saturday, I don’t think anyone could do a better job than she will,” said Gollan, speaking at the Winter Carnival launch earlier this week.
“She has come a long way in a short time. What she is doing … leading the Premiership at such a young age in her first season riding in the Metropolitan area … it is a big jump, a big challenge … very different from the provincials.
“Everything happens a bit quicker, there are bigger expectations … and she’s handled it all very well.
“Her balance is second to none. Her hands are very good. She has all the credentials to make it and, if she wins the Premiership, that won’t be the last you hear of her.
“She will be a good rider in whatever jurisdiction she rides, whether she stays here or whether she ventures further afield. She’s got a big career ahead of her.”
That’s high praise indeed Gollan, particularly as he has a sound point of reference with which to work.
Gollan helped take Bailee Nothdurft to a Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership win back in the 2019/20 season … where Nothdurft became the first apprentice to take out the senior title since Michael Rodd in 2002 and Zac Purton in 2003.
He was also the tower of strength behind Angela Jones in her breakout season in 2022/23 when she won the Brisbane Apprentice Jockeys Premiership and finished third in in the overall Jockeys Premiership with seventy-nine winners … a number of winners which would have won that Premiership in any of the previous five seasons.
The point being that, while Lang was given the opportunity to follow in big footsteps, she is taking massive strides, having already topped fifty metropolitan winners for the season … and counting. (Jones is the one chasing her in second place).
A Group 2 win as an apprentice would be the cherry on the top of what is already a stellar season for the young rider … as it was for Graham last year when she too took the honours while still riding as an apprentice.
It the race goes her way, it would be another special moment in Queensland’s racing history.
