As a leading hoop, Angland is used to the feeling of time standing still. He says it's what happens every time he hits the front in a big race. But, he admits, even that is nothing like the adrenaline-packed experiences he had in his teens riding bulls around his childhood home town of Wagga.

Angland has become a group 1 jockey, and has ridden thoroughbreds around the world. But if he had followed his boyhood dream, he would not be at Randwick this afternoon. Rather, he would be jumping on 700kg of prime beef in the national bull-riding finals at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

"Growing up as a young bloke riding at the rodeo circuit my dream was to be a PBR rider," Angland said. "I know a lot of guys that are riding and it's something I really enjoy."

Bull-riding is Angland's passion and as he stands on the dirt to watch recorded TV highlights of his mates living out the longest eight seconds in sport, it is obvious he still has the urge to get the rope out and jump on a bull.

"In racing, you're mostly in control, you can point out a run and try to take that run," Angland explains. "When you're riding bulls, you're not in control at all. You control your body but that is just going with the animal.

"It feels like forever out here [on a bull]. You're not in control at all, so all you can do is control your position. People go on and say you only have to ride them for eight seconds but it feels a lot longer than that."

Angland has won three group 1 races since returning from a stint in Hong Kong this season, the latest being the JJ Atkins on Press Statement last month. He compared winning a big one to his bull-riding days.

"If you hit the front a long way out in a group 1 race, it feels like it takes forever in another way. But you get time to think and you're mind takes over." he said.

"In the last 100 metres, if you're in contention, you're doing things on a horse to help it go quicker, where in bull riding it's all about keeping square and keeping your body in the right position to go with the bull. If you're out of position, you're going to get bucked off. There is no real time to think on a bull - you react."

Angland is lanky for jockey but when he stands next to a couple of the international bull riders who are competing in Sydney on Saturday -  men such as Gustavo Pedrero,  Cristiano Cunha and Robson Guedes - you can see he has the build for his former sport of choice.

There is a little less of Angland than the bull riders, mainly because of the weight demands of his current profession, but legend of the sport Brendon Clark has no doubt he could have made it on bulls.

"I have known Tye and his family for a long time and you only have to look at what he has done in racing to know he could have made out here," Clark says while standing in the middle of the arena that is quiet now but will be the seething centre of bovine violence the following night.

"Tye's brother Cody is over in Canada and is a great bareback bronco rider and [his other brother] Rhys has ridden bulls. In a way what Tye does is tougher because of what he does to his body and because horses at that speed can be worse than eight seconds out here."

Clark, who won three events on the Professional Bull Riding circuit in the US, shakes his head as Angland tells him the details of a fall at Canterbury last year when he held on to the reins to be dragged across the line and still finished fourth.

"It stumbled and I went over its neck and got my arm caught in the reins and just held on to get over the line get fourth money," Angland said. "I was bulldogging it and holding on to its neck for a while."

Clark responds: "Wow."

Angland tells the bull riders that he spent his teens in their sport but put his rodeo days behind him once he accepted his apprenticeship. Still, he says, the experience stays with him.

"It did help me early [in my career] with balance." he says. "I grew up riding horses from a young age and it taught me a lot, which I have carried through to racing. It all helps."

He knows some of his bull-riding mates will be at Randwick before Saturday night's event and hopes he can kick home a winner or two.

"My best rides are probably Kristy Lee for Chris Waller, she been going well," Angland said. "I'm on one for Matty Dale in the last [Fell Swoop], which has a very good winning record of four of its five starts and looks very promising. It might be a good way to finish the day before getting here to watch the boys do their stuff."