Emily Lang hunts down Metro Jockey Title lead.

With Brisbane’s number one jockey James Orman currently in Hong Kong for a six-week riding stint, Rockhampton-raised Emily Lang is emerging as a real contender for an historic Queensland Metropolitan premiership title.

Lang started this week with 38 wins beside her name, but the tally grows with each Metro race meeting in the south-east corner. Lang’s Doomben rides on Saturday include last start Doomben winner Surprise Honey in the QTIS Jewel 3YO Prelude (1110m), Toowoomba Weetwood Handicap placegetter Rockribbed (Open Handicap (1200m), former New Zealander Kronenbourg (Open Handicap (1615m), and My Pins (BM70 Handicap (1615m), Jimmy Orman currently leads the premiership race with 45 victories, with two girls nipping at his heels. The talented Angela Jones has 40 wins, just two ahead of Lang, with both in hot pursuit of Orman.

Another Rockhampton graduate, apprentice Tahlia Fenlon, is also in the state’s top ten riders. In ninth place Fenlon has ridden 19 metro winners. Lang and Jones now are positioned with golden opportunities to make history. No female jockey has ever won a Brisbane Jockey Premiership. Lang, who is only 23 years old, is currently under the guidance of premier Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan. She has outridden her country and provincial claim with the city tracks now her main workplace where she can use a 3kg claim. That claim is a big bonus for the progressive rider as she moves up the Brisbane ladder.
“I didn’t think it would be until the new season started that I’d be using my 3kg claim in town,” Lang said.

Lang admits riding in the city presents a whole different set of scenarios to what she was previously used to at the provincials and country tracks, but she is feeling more at home at the top level with the backing of Queensland’s leading trainer. Honing her early horse skills at the pony club, starting when she was at primary school in Rockhampton, Lang did not get involved in the racing scene until about four years ago. From a youngster through her teens Lang focused her horse interest on eventing – show jumping dressage and cross-country riding- and did some camp drafting as well.

After graduating high school from Rockhampton Girls Grammar, she opted to take a two-year gap year in Sydney and took a horse she had previously enjoyed a lot of success with alongside. With a sound foundation to enter horse racing, it was in Sydney where Lang began working for Matthew Smith, pre-training thoroughbreds. Then, when she returned to Brisbane to undertake a university degree, she answered an advertisement placed by Munce Racing and took on a part-time job with trainer Chris Munce.

After a few semesters at university, Lang decided to defer her Bachelor of Business and Data Science and turned her attention to riding.
Lang was apprenticed to the Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted training partnership and at her debut weekend in 2022 she recorded a perfect five wins from five races at the Warwick Turf Club. That was day two in the saddle just 30 hours after she made her race riding debut at Nanango where Lang also rode a winner at her third race ride.

Lang said her family were more than surprised when she told them she wanted to be a jockey. “Mum and Dad initially weren’t so happy as they know how dangerous it can be, but they love it now and watch every single race I ride in, they’re really supportive and I’m really lucky,” Lang said. “Now my brother Josh has a horse racing syndicate (One Syndication), sauna businesses for jockeys to sweat in, and my parents have shares in racehorses, so it is very funny to think about,” she said.

RJC CEO, David Aldred.

Photo Credit: Racing Queensland