PAUL Townend isn’t one to dwell.

When you have the best jump jockey’s job there has ever been in racing, you simply don’t have the time for looking back. Especially at this time of year.

Not long off the plane in Liverpool on Thursday afternoon, it’s only been three days since he recorded a first win in the Irish Grand National with a ride for the ages on I Am Maximus and all he can think of is Saturday. Next big race, next big target. Monday might as well have been three years ago rather than three days.

He is right as well. In this day and age, a jockey is only ever as good as his last ride it seems. But his win on I Am Maximus was his second last ride and it will likely be remembered as one of the great rides. On a left-hanging horse who was never asked to go more right in his life, Townend somehow got him to win arguably the toughest race on the Irish calendar.

“Sure the first circuit didn’t go well at all really,” he recalls now. “We were jumping badly and he just wasn’t travelling for me down the inside. We hadn’t got detached and they’d gone a good gallop, that was the only positive thing.

“Going out on the second circuit, I just said I’d try something else. I was always able to hang in there, so that was giving me some sort of confidence but it wasn’t until we turned across the bottom and I got onto the main group that I had him jumping in some bit of a rhythm. I thought we could be alive from there and the horse really kept on for me from there.

“It was nice to tick it off the CV and it was nice to do it for my uncle Bob, who passed away last week. He was in all of our thoughts over the weekend. He was a huge supporter of mine and I needed all the help I got from him on Monday, that’s for sure.

“Dad and Jody had the winner of the bumper in Cork on Sunday as well so it was very evident we had a lot of help from upstairs over the weekend.”

It was just another reminder of why the Cork native is in the position he is in, the envy of his weighroom colleagues, and it came not long after he partnered Galopin Des Champs to a sensational win in the Gold Cup, his third win in the race in five years.

But with the privilege comes the pressure.

His talent in the saddle is one thing but his ability to deal with constant expectancy is another. That’s why he looks forward. Racing is a fickle game and he’ll tell you himself, success is guaranteed to no one.

“You probably don’t enjoy the big Festivals,” he reflects. “It might sound mad but the success is probably wasted on the winner because you’re back out to ride in the next race. I think it’s important with Cheltenham for example, the week after to reflect on it, and try and appreciate it, but at the time when you win, by the time you get back into the parade ring, your mind is probably at the start of the next race. It’s such a quick turnaround.

“You’d like to enjoy it a little bit more but on the other hand, if you’re after getting beaten, it’s a quick turnaround to go out and redeem yourself as well. The DRF has every race packed into two days and it can be a bit mad.

“It’s a quick turnaround but it’s important to reflect on it, and not let it all pass you by as well because once one festival is over, especially this time of year, you’re straight into the next one. So it’s important not to take it for granted as well.”

Pinnacle

The pressure is there but of course he’d have it no other way. It’s just over three weeks since he reached the pinnacle of the sport for a third time in five years, winning the Gold Cup on Galopin Des Champs. The seven-year-old didn’t need the nudging and nurdling I Am Maximus needed, but Townend’s timing was perfection, and it allowed his mount to ooze all of class on the truest test of class for a staying chaser.

“It was great that it came off but if I’d have got beaten, it probably would have been seen as one of the worst rides of all time,” Townend says. “There’s a thin line between a brilliant ride and a terrible ride but it’s nice when it comes off.

“I suppose that type of ride is very satisfying when it does come off. There is a huge adrenaline buzz in jumping a two miler out and letting him rip over his fences, but in a tactical sense, being able to drop one in and pick your way through is the funnest way for me anyway.

“You’re watching so much happening in front of you, and you need a bit of luck to do it, but you’re getting to stalk your prey.

“The Gold Cup is just different as well. There’s just a different feel about the race. That’s just what I feel from talking to other jockeys who have won it. It’s probably the tempo of the race. It’s just very noticeable how different a test it is compared to other top races. Everyone wants a Gold Cup winner.

“A true-run Gold Cup is probably the most challenging test of horse and jockey. There can obviously be slowly running Gold Cups too but with an end to end Gold Cup, those horses can just go a stride quicker than the ones a grade below them. They stay going so it’s a proper test of a horse and if there’s any hole in them, it’ll be found out in that race.”

Only Pat Taaffe has more Gold Cup wins as a jockey now. When Lydia Hislop told Townend that in the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham, all she got was a smile in acknowledgement. He has never been one for keeping track of big targets and milestones.

But there was one milestone he had been keeping an eye on going into Cheltenham, and as it happened, with all the furore that comes with the Festival, he was disappointed that it passed him by without him noticing at the time - 100 Grade 1 winners.

Bolted up

He achieved it on Impaire Et Passe, who’d bolted up for him in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, before firing three more victories at the top level at Festival and one more again last weekend on Ashroe Diamond.

“I was actually keeping an eye on the Grade 1 winners number through the season,” Townend says. “I knew I was getting close to it but I never got to sit down and count them up to be sure of it before Cheltenham and it was said to me after the Festival, that I’d hit 100.

“I was kind of disappointed in myself for not realising it at the time. I don’t know why exactly, I just thought it was a cool thing to have done and while every year you want to be champion jockey, I suppose with the quality of horses we have, riding Grade 1 winners is what counts.”

You have to go back to 2008 to find Townend’s first top level success. Deputising for an injured Ruby Walsh, which would soon become his modus operandi for the next decade or so, he partnered a certain Hurricane Fly to win the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at the age of just 18.

Townend has been at Closutton ever since he went there for his transition year at the age of just 15. His star rose along with the fortunes of the yard, and while he would have had plenty of suitors willing to take him on as a number one, it was never an option, with his preference to hone in skills with the superb equine and human talent around him in Co Carlow.

As it happened, there was a unique natural development that readied him for his number one role, with Ruby Walsh plagued by injuries in his final years in the saddle, giving Townend regular stints as the number one at Closutton.

Perhaps that made it obvious to stick around but he still had to take his opportunities. The culmination of that intermittent success meant that when Walsh surprised everyone by retiring on the spot at Punchestown, it was a safe assumption that Townend would take over instantly.

Scary heights

Since his adoption of the number one role, Mullins and Townend have elevated their achievements to scary heights. Just under half of Townend’s 105 Grade 1 wins have come in his three seasons since he took over the number one spot.

He had his best total of 20 last season. He has 13 and counting this term in which he also has combined with Mullins for a strike rate of 38% which could easily creep higher again come Punchestown, where he will be crowned champion jockey for a fifth time.

Yet the pressure never relents, particularly at the Cheltenham Festival, which can make or break the season.

“It’s not just the week over there,” Townend replies. “The build up to the Festival is as stressful as the week itself. When you’re there, all the decisions have been made but I suppose a fortnight or three weeks before it, lots of things are still up in the air.

“Of course a lot of people would like to have it and it’s a good position to be in but you have to manage it correctly or it can be on top of you and probably suffocate you a little bit.

“I suppose I was lucky in a way that when Ruby was riding for Willie, I got a taste of it every now and then, and it was kind of a nice transition into the hot seat full time. I’ve been fortunate to have been riding Grade 1 horses ever since I started riding, so I guess I’ve grown up with that and matured with it.

“With Willie’s horses at the big festivals, you always know there is a big chance coming your way but the majority are high pressure, high profile rides. An early winner is very important. I wouldn’t say it changes everything but you’re human at the end of the day and success breeds confidence, it just eases the whole thing for you and you can ride a little freer.

“I remember when I didn’t ride a winner until Ferny Hollow won the Champion Bumper a couple of seasons ago and it was a long two days. When that happens, the temptation is to chase a winner. If you’re out of position, you’re that bit more keen to get back into a position. You can try too hard and when you do that, that can be worse than not trying at all.”

A free-riding and confident Paul Townend on a primed Mullins horse is a dangerous proposition and plenty will be willing to wager that today at Aintree when the pair combine with Gaillard Du Mesnil in the National.

“I think I’ve only completed the National twice in 12 goes so I haven’t had much luck to be honest but we’re hoping for that to change,” he says. “The Gold Cup is the championship race but the Grand National is the most famous race in the world, so you’d love to win it.

“Gaillard Du Mesnil is a classy horse. He’s a Grade 1 winner and he won nicely at Cheltenham. He ran well in the Irish National last year and he has a nice weight. Hopefully he will be able to go the gallop early and if he takes to the fences I’m hoping to get a good spin off him.”

Energumene/El Fabiolo

Energumene was definitely back to his best in the Champion Chase and it was huge joy and thrill to ride him when he was in that kind of form. The horses that beat him in the Clarence House underperformed, but I think you saw a different Energumene to that version.

There is no reason to say El Fabiolo won’t challenge him next year. He is maturing all the time and he has not had a lot of races. You can see his jumping improving with every run so there is a little bit to work on there which is nice for him.

Riding against Constitution Hill

I was looking forward to taking Constitution Hill on with State Man. I thought State Man didn’t perform on the day to be honest, whether it would have made a difference or not, probably it didn’t. Constitution Hill is the real deal but I was disappointed with my lad. I thought he would put up a better performance but we were a long way clear of the rest so we probably just ran into a superstar.

Bryan Cooper retiring

Fair play to him for coming out and admitting it and saying the truth about it because I think we all know a lot of people have retired for the same reason and they haven’t come out and said it.

Bryan was a great rider and I suppose he wasn’t enjoying it and the best way to get injured is by not being 100% committed to it.