Pozman secures Rising Stars Series with two races to spare

Talented Victorian apprentice Emily Pozman fulfilled her season-long ambition of winning the RMBL Investments Rising Stars Series after a sixth-place finish aboard Conflict at Bendigo on 25 June ensured she could no longer be caught.

Pozman secured the series - won by the likes of Teo Nugent and Celine Gaudray in recent years - with two races to spare ahead of the RMBL Rising Stars Series Final at Flemington on Saturday, 18 July. 

A winner of the Victorian Jockeys Association’s Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in Training award earlier this year, Pozman amassed an unassailable lead during the four series heats held across February, March and April, scoring valuable points in all four including victory in Heat 17 at Kilmore aboard Conflict. 

The 27-year-old hoop has enjoyed a breakthrough year and saw her non-metro claim recently reduced to 1.5kg after she recorded her 50th winner on the metro and provincial circuits. Pozman also rode her first Flemington winner in January, a victory made all the more sweet given it came for her masters Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman.

“I have targeted this series all season with my manager and coach, so to be able to achieve that goal is both exciting and a relief,” she said.

“I’m happy with how this season has gone. I’ve probably had a few too many suspensions which has halted my momentum a bit, but I only have myself to blame for that!

“Jockeys are competitive and we always hope for better, so hopefully it rolls into an even more successful season next year.”

Pozman entered Racing Victoria’s (RV) Apprentice Jockey Training Program in March 2022 alongside Tom Prebble, Dakotah Keane, Jaylah Kennedy, Alysha Warren, Ryan Houston, Jess Booth, Danica Munro, and Rose Hammond.

Pozman feels that Victoria’s apprentice pool is particularly competitive at present.

“Winter is a great time for apprentices to get a go when the senior jockeys head to interstate carnivals or away on holiday, but it’s proving to be just as competitive as any other time because our jockey ranks are full of successful apprentices at the minute,” she said.

“I’ll be coming out of my apprenticeship soon, so my long-term goal is to be able to continue to ride in Victoria. It’s one of the hardest states to be a jockey in, purely off the amount of talent we have here.

“My short-term goals are trying to get as much momentum and as many winners as I can.”

Securing the Rising Stars series was an emotional moment for Pozman, who follows in the footsteps of last year’s winner and good friend Tom Prebble.

Prebble, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a fall at Warrnambool last September, was also apprenticed to the Moody-Coleman stable prior to the incident.

“Tom won it last year and that’s one of the main reasons why I have been going for it,” Pozman added. “We started our apprenticeships together and then he took off and was very successful, so I was always sort of chasing him down.

“It’s so unfortunate what has happened to him, but he has remained a very close friend of mine and we still talk each day.

“I think he’s probably got just as much enjoyment out of seeing me win this after him as I have gotten by doing it.”

The final of the RMBL Investments Rising Stars Series will be held at Flemington on Saturday, 18 July.

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