Emily Lang defies Tony Gollan’s instructions to win aboard Boomtown Boss at Eagle Farm

Apprentice jockey Emily Lang ignored instructions to win aboard Boomtown Boss at Eagle Farm before declaring the Tony Gollan galloper will be “very hard to beat” in the Queensland Guineas.

Emily Lang steers Boomtown Boss along the rail to win the QTIS 3YO Quality Handicap at Eagle Farm. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

Boomtown Boss stamped his Queensland Guineas credentials with a cheeky inside run to take out the QTIS 3YO Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Apprentice Emily Lang ignored her trainer Tony Gollan’s instructions to travel along the inside part of the Soft 6 track and her massive gamble paid dividends as she stormed to victory on the gelding ahead of race favourite Benzou and $21 roughie Blitzum.

Gollan, Brisbane’s premier trainer, was in Sydney for the Australian Easter Yearling Sale on Saturday but his stable representative Craig Cavanough was only too happy to spruik Boomtown Boss’s push for a Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Eagle Farm on May 3.

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“We’ve always said that he’s a Guineas type of horse,” Cavanough said as the Queensland industry gears up for the upcoming winter carnival.

“He came into this race without a trial so I was a little bit concerned that he might have been a run short.

“But he keeps himself pretty fit at home and he’s not the heaviest of horses, he’s a light sort of dude.

“It was a very nice win. I was a little bit worried at the top of the straight when Emily (Lang) went back to the inside because my last words to her were ‘don’t go back to the inside’.

“She didn’t heed mine or Tony’s advice, she went back to the inside and won very well.”

Asked how Boomtown Boss would fare in the $350,000 Queensland Guineas, Lang said: “I think he’ll be very hard to beat.

“He’s such a great horse and Tony (Gollan) has such a big opinion of him. You can tell the horses that Tony has a big opinion of, like Zoustyle and whatnot, they always go very well.

“It was a huge win from him today.”

Boomtown Boss takes the Sky Racing Quality first up, and that's a double to @tonygollan at Eagle Farm today!@emilyyplang | @BrisRacingClubpic.twitter.com/eyNiuhkLK9

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 5, 2025

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In the last of the day, a 1200m Open Handicap, Mudgee trainer Mack Griffith’s gelding Compelling Truth, with apprentice Bailey Wheeler on board, wore down hot favourite Hell and King Kapa in the straight.

“He’ll go back home now for a rest and then head to the Wagga Cup carnival,” Griffith said.

Gold Coast trainer Paul Shailer had a meeting to remember, just 24 hours after undergoing knee surgery for a torn meniscus.

Shailer had just two runners on Saturday when his filly On Point Pixie finished runner-up to Thee Creek in the QTIS 2YO (1300m) to kick off proceedings and he later savoured an impressive victory with six-year-old gelding Roller Coaster in a Benchmark 70 Handicap (2200m).

“I was playing footy with the kids on the beach and I went down,” he said about his knee injury.

“This was about three months ago so I finally decided to get something done about it and had surgery yesterday (Friday).

“But clearly the surgeon did a great job because I’m up and about today.

“I thought the two-year-old was really brave in the first. And then the old boy pops his head up every now and then so it was our turn on Saturday.”

Originally published as Emily Lang defies Tony Gollan’s instructions to win aboard Boomtown Boss at Eagle Farm