It looks like apprentice Angela Jones’ recent move to the powerful Tony Gollan stable could not have come at a more fortuitous time for the young rider.
Gollan has wholeheartedly thrown his support behind the new stable apprentice supporting her quest for the Queensland Provincial Apprentice Jockey Premiership by giving her no less than four scheduled stable rides out of five possible runners at Ipswich on Friday and a further three rides at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
Jones is currently just half-a-win behind Jasmine Cornish in the race for the provincial premiership and, including the Gollan trained runners, Jones is currently scheduled to have a total of fifteen rides over the final three days of the season.
Apart from the Gollan influence, what could prove pivotal is that three of those other rides are for trainer Mark Currie at Saturday night’s Toowoomba meeting … a stable that thrives at that venue.
Before heading to Toowoomba, Jones will add another important landmark ride to her story when she takes her first Saturday, city Metropolitan ride at Eagle Farm … again on a Tony Gollan trained runner. That will already make Saturday a special day for Jones.
For her part, while Cornish does not have a ‘big gun’ trainer on her riding list, one of the hardest working apprentices around is scheduled to have no less than twenty-six rides spread over four meetings over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday period.
Cornish has a full book of nine rides at Ipswich on Friday. She rides in the first five races at the Gold Coast on Saturday before changing tack and heading off to the Toowoomba night meeting where she will ride in seven races before finishing off the weekend with five rides at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
Whichever way the Queensland Provincial Apprentice Jockey Premiership plays out in the end, Cornish and Jones have produced outstanding seasons in their own right and, if you are one who keeps a black-book, you would have to mark them both down as riders to keep an eye on in the future.
