PAUL Townend was crowned champion jockey for a sixth time and for the fifth time in a row last Saturday after he broke the 100-winner barrier for the fourth time in five seasons.

The Cork jockey has the best job there has ever been in National Hunt racing and continues to make hay from it. To illustrate this, Townend has doubled his tally of Grade 1 wins since taking over from Ruby Walsh as number one jockey to Willie Mullins in 2019, riding his 100th top level victory at the Cheltenham Festival and extending his total to 114 by the end of the Punchestown Festival. His 22 Grade 1 wins for the season is a new personal best.

Most notably, Townend took just six rides for outside trainers, a huge drop off on years gone by, which can be assumed is a ploy to concentrate on the quality inside Closutton and reduce the risk of injury, which naturally can be hugely costly given the talent at his disposal. That sort of approach is very much evident in modern day sport - you save your best players for the biggest matches.

With the privilege comes the pressure, and the 32-year-old will undoubtedly slow down now after the intensity of the big spring festivals, but he has the luxury of doing so, with Mullins happy to rotate a quality team of riders.

Of course, you have to remember the brilliant season Jack Kennedy was having before he was cruelly injured off a fall from Top Bandit at Naas right at the start of the new year. Kennedy was 18 winners clear of Townend at the time, but unfortunately his total of 77 winners has stayed stagnant since, as though initially he had hoped to be back for Cheltenham, he has remained on the sidelines. Let’s hope he gets back soon.

His injury provided the gateway for a remarkable return to action for Davy Russell, who rode eight winners in Ireland for his second stint, two Grade 1 winners in Mighty Potter and Irish Point (at Aintree) but was luckless at the Cheltenham Festival.

Rachael Blackmore finished third in the table again off the back of another solid season (62 winners) while Danny Mullins was just six behind her after he scored his best ever tally of 56 winners, which include four Grade 1s, three of which came at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Patrick Mullins secured a 15th champion amateur title off the back of 47 winners, which brings his career total to over 750.

Huge season

It was a huge season for Keith Donoghue whose 48 winners was a clear best. The Meath native scored marquee handicap chase wins on The Big Dog and teamed up to great effect with Gavin Cromwell. By the end of the season he was back riding for his old ally Gordon Elliott, notably scoring another win in the Cross Country Chase on Delta Work.

With Joseph O’Brien’s National Hunt attention continuing to recede, JJ Slevin was always going to be the main person to suffer but full credit to him this term, as he recorded a career best tally of 44, with three Grade 1 wins also secured.

Two of those three wins came for O’Brien, who may well always have a select team of National Hunt horses but Slevin has also benefited from a link up with Sean and Bernadine Mulryan, for whom he rode Fastorslow to win at Punchestown last week.

Darragh O’Keeffe lost that link last season but no jockey was busier than him with 600 rides (44 wins) and he enjoyed a maiden Cheltenham Festival win on Maskada in the Grand Annual.

Mark Walsh’s 36 wins is a significant drop off from his previous tallies but that can largely be put down to a series of injuries and nevertheless, he still managed to score four Grade 1 wins.

Michael O’Sullivan was the big springer. The Cork native started his season off as a 7lb claimer but remarkably scored three Grade 1 wins for Barry Connell, who spotted his talent before most and put a huge amount of faith in him.

The pair were the break out stories of the season and O’Sullivan used the platform to make hay for other trainers, his 32 winners enough for a top 12 finish and saw him take the champion conditional riders’ title easily.

The other break out story was Ben Harvey, whose 23 winners was a big upgrade on the five successes he had the season before, and largely down to his link up with the progressively powerful John McConnell. The pair had their finest moment at Cheltenham with Seddon in the Magners Plate, but also combined for big wins at Aintree and Punchestown.

Kieren Buckley (20 wins), Paddy O’Hanlon (20), Cian Quirke (16) and Aidan Kelly (14) all had noteworthy seasons and will look to kick on this term.