Tony Gollan gives over-analysing apprentice Emily Lang sage advice: ‘Just relax’
Emily Lang admits riding in town has presented a whole different set of scenarios to what she is used to, but she is feeling more at home at the top level with the backing of Queensland’s leading trainer.
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Emily Lang was looking for a Christmas period job to fill a gap before she started university when she first stepped into racing.
She is now one of the emerging stars of the sport as she kicks off as a metropolitan apprentice jockey for leading trainer Tony Gollan in Brisbane.
Lang was one of the most prolific provincial jockeys in Australia last year for trainers Steve O’Dea and Matt Hoysted and made the move to Gollan’s for the 2024-25 season, where she is one of the leading chances for the coveted apprentice jockeys title in Brisbane.
In just her second day of riding as a jockey two years ago, Lang rode five winners at Warwick to announce herself as a rising talent.
Admitting she was “trying too hard” during her first fortnight in town, Lang is keen to take things in her stride more as she settles in to life riding against Queensland’s best.
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“I have probably tried to over complicate things a bit to be honest,” she said ahead of her stacked book of rides at Doomben on Saturday.
“You’re still riding with the same people you do at Ipswich and the Sunny Coast, [but] it is a bit different.
“Tony asked me the other day how I was finding it and I said it was a lot more tactical than what I was used to.
“He basically said I just needed to relax more and ride.
“Noel Callow actually pulled me aside the other day when I wasn’t riding too well at the Sunny Coast.
“He just said to me it is the same people I have been racing against for a while, the horses still jump out of the gates the same, you are racing the same distances.
“Someone like me, I was over analysing things, I just need to let them play out a bit more.”
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While some grow up dreaming of being a jockey, Lang admitted her entry into racing was different to most.
Growing up in Rockhampton, Lang never even went to the races until she was 19, but says she always had a keen interest in horses through equestrian.
“I had a two-year gap year in Sydney and came back to Brisbane to start a business and data science degree at university and all of the Christmas casual positions at places like Telstra and that had been filled,” she said.
“So I saw that Chris Munce Racing was advertising for ground staff and track riders, so I got in touch with them and they basically said ‘when can you start?’
“It took me a while to start riding work, but I started to slim down a fair bit when I started riding – it was a lot harder work than eventing and show jumping.
“Eventually I went to him and said I want to be an apprentice, I got in touch with (apprentice boss) Shane Scriven and off I went.”
Lang is booked to ride five leading chances for Gollan at Doomben on Saturday.
Originally published as Tony Gollan gives over-analysing apprentice Emily Lang sage advice: ‘Just relax’
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