EMMA LY – GAVE UP NURSING TO RIDE

ANY day Emma Ly has on this earth is a bonus!

So why shouldn’t she be feeling on top of the world after riding a winner at Wyong yesterday?

The 29-year-old Hawkesbury apprentice, who gave up a nursing career to become a jockey, clinched her first provincial success this season on Hawkesbury trainer Ed O’Rourke’s $11 chance Shalaa Jet in the Provincial Maiden Plate (1600m).

Victorian-born Ly says she is so lucky to be alive after a shocking trackwork accident at Royal Randwick 13 months ago.

“I’ll never forget the date,” Ly said today. “It was May 4.

“I was apprenticed to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott at the time and was riding trackwork at Royal Randwick at 5am that morning.

“A riderless horse running in the opposite direction collided with me.

“I sustained multiple serious injuries, and the doctors couldn’t believe I wasn’t killed.

“I had to have my right hip put back in place.”

Ly, now apprenticed to Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan, by her own admission, was a late starter in the racing industry.

After studying to be a nurse, she was actually in her last placement at a nursing home when she had a massive change of heart.

“I felt I couldn’t properly look after humans, and preferred looking after horses,” Ly said.

After a lengthy process learning the ropes, she could not have wished for a better start to her new career.

She claimed 4kg and won on the Waterhouse-Bott hotpot Choose Your Words ($1.35 favorite) in a Maiden Plate (1460m) at Queanbeyan on April 29, 2023.

“Jockey Adam Hyeronimus rang me on the way to the races, and told me how to ride the Queanbeyan track,” Ly said.

“And Gai also called and told me to go out and have fun.

“Choose Your Words began well, and rolled along in front.

“She was never going to lose and won easily.

“It was a huge thrill.”

Choose Your Words, a daughter of Redoute’s Choice, was retired to stud after the Queanbeyan race, and is now a Mum, having foaled a Capitalist filly last year.

Ly was sidelined for many months after her accident last year, and decided on a “sea change”, going from Randwick to Hawkesbury.

“I felt it was time for a change, and put the feelers out there,” she said.

“Knowing a good friend of Blake Ryan who suggested I get in touch with him, I did and he was willing to take me on.”

Ly firstly spent three months on loan with Ryan, and her indentures were officially transferred three weeks ago.

Shalaa Jet was her 34th career winner (on 19 different tracks around NSW), and seventh this season.

“I have got to know Shalaa Jet well,” Ly said. “That was my second ride on him (she ran third at Hawkesbury on May 27 at $31), and have also been riding him work.

“He was my second provincial winner. My first was Napoleon Solo ($18) at Kembla Grange on July 29, 2023.

“Napoleon Solo was a great horse to ride. We got on so well together.”

Now that Ly has put her name back in the provincial spotlight, she is hoping to get more opportunities with her 3kg claim, and at some stage also in town.

And that near fatal accident at Randwick last year hasn’t diminished her passion for racing one little bit.

“I love it,” she said. “I don’t regret at all choosing this industry over nursing.

“I’m very settled with Blake’s stable at Hawkesbury. I really feel I’m finally in my happy place.”

Story John Curtis, June 9, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos