EMILY LANG STEPS OUT AS A SENIOR RIDER

By Graham Potter | Friday, June 26, 2026

It was a close result, but no cigar, for Emily Lang when she had to settle for second place on the Tony Gollan trained Rough Cause in her last race as an apprentice at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.

It would have been nice for her to go out as a winner there, particularly in stable colours for a trainer who has done so much to shape her career … but that was a minor in the grand scheme of things … and Lang can move forward now as a fully-fledged senior jockey with the confidence and pride that comes from completing a notable, successful apprenticeship.

Life as a jockey, whatever their status, is never easy. Obstacles and pitfalls are ever-present and there are challenges to be faced and conquered at every turn.

Taken in that context, the timing of Lang’s significant double-strike on Ipswich Cup Day, in Lang’s own words, “couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Like many Queensland based jockeys and trainers who have to give way to the flood of southern invaders who wash away many of the opportunities on offer during the Queensland Winter Carnival, Lang has been waiting in the wings in recent times, watching from the shadows as mostly high profile riders, such as the likes of James McDonald, hog the centre stage spotlight.

It happens every year … but that doesn’t make it any less of a test of character for those losing out … and the affected riders not only need to maintain a touch of mental resilience to get them through that period, but the best of them also need to be absolutely ready to bounce back quickly … to reintroduce themselves if you like … to give everyone a reminder of their race winning prowess.

Lang ticked all of those boxes with two superbly rated frontrunning rides at Ipswich on Saturday where she claimed victory in two of the three Listed feature races on the day … winning the Ipswich Cup aboard Kaluakoi and the Gai Waterhouse with Naifah.

You wouldn’t have expected anything less from a rider who, last season, finished second in a now famous, protracted, two-way, and historic battle for the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership, ultimately finishing only two-and-a-half winners behind Angela Jones, who became the first female to take out that title.

Interestingly enough, Jones and Lang both posted the same metropolitan winning strike-rate for the 2024/25 season of 12.5 percent.

“I think that was the highlight of my apprenticeship … Ange and I battling it out over the last few months of the season,” said Lang. “That was great, and obviously doing it with someone like Ange, who I am quite close with, in the end made it that, regardless of what happened, we were still happy for each other.”

Lang earned a title of her own that season though, taking out the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey’s Premiership by a whopping seventeen-and-a-half win margin.

“That was the aim at the start of the season,” said Lang. “My main goal was to win the apprentice title, and it was a huge thrill in itself to have done that.”

You might have thought at the time that those two wins at Ipswich had brought Lang’s defence of her Apprentice Premiership title back into focus for this year … she currently sits five-and-a-half wins behind Jace McMurray … but, sadly for her, those results, while very welcome winners, were too little too late to affect the outcome of this season’s Brisbane Apprentice Jockey Premiership as Lang, who has been riding without a claim for some time, as mentioned, completed her apprenticeship on June 24.

“Because I’ve ridden without a claim for so long now, becoming a senior jockey … it just feels the same,” said Lang. “When I first lost my claim, it did feel a bit daunting, but now, having gone so long without it, nothing really changes, I think.

“I was already having a bit of a rough time chipping away with no claim.”

The drop in opportunities that come with riding without a claim is another tough transition period for any jockey as can be gauged from the following statistics.

In spite of her last season heroics, where she rode 63.5 winners from 508 rides, Lang’s number of rides from last season to this season, in metropolitan races, have dropped to 260 so far with a current call of 32 winners.

It’s a hit which just has to be taken on the chin. All Lang can do is move on, and, again, that’s why her results at Ipswich on Saturday were so important.

“My first Listed race win on Boomtown Boss was one of my most memorable wins … along with Kronenbourg in the Listed Brisbane Handicap,” (Kronenbourg won that at a starting price of $91), “and last weekend at Ipswich as well … being for different stables that I don’t really ride for … and for just getting a crack during the carnival.”

A jockey’s winning strike-rate can be … not always, but it can be … a good guide as to how they are travelling.

In Lang’s case that test stands up well as the lesser opportunities, in terms of numbers and also, arguably, in the quality of her rides overall, has had little to no effect on her positive rate of return with Lang currently striking at 12.3 percent (down just 0.2 percent from last season).

Lang will finish second in the Brisbane Apprentice Jockeys’ Premiership, and she currently sits in seventh place on the Brisbane Jockeys’ Premiership in a chase that, while it does not have any of the hype and fanfare of last season, is nevertheless another very sound outcome.

Lang will have her first metropolitan rides as a senior jockey at Eagle Farm on Saturday where she will continue her relationship with the Gollan yard, riding Spirit Of Barty in the first race on the card.

She has also been called upon by the Chris Waller stable to ride Yet He Moves in the Listed Tattersalls Mile and she will round off the day riding Barber for Richard Litt in the Group 3 W J Healy Stakes.

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