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Paul Townend

{{short description|Irish jockey}}

{{distinguish|Paul Townsend}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2021}}

File:Paul Townend riding Un De Sceaux in 2016 (cropped-J1).jpg in 2016]]

Paul Townend (born 15 September 1990) is an Irish jockey who competes in National Hunt racing. From Lisgoold in County Cork, he has been attached to the yard of Irish trainer Willie Mullins since he was fifteen, beginning his career as an apprentice flat racing jockey. Following the retirement of Ruby Walsh in 2019, Townend became the number one jockey to the Mullins yard.

In 2019 he gave Willie Mullins his first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner with Al Boum Photo and he repeated this success in 2020. He recorded his third and fourth win in the race on Galopin Des Champs in 2023 and 2024. He won the 2023 Irish Grand National and the 2024 Aintree Grand National on I Am Maximus for Mullins. He is a six-time Irish jump racing Champion Jockey (2010/11, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23 seasons).

Early life

Townend (born 15 September 1990) comes from a racing background and grew up on a small farm in east County Cork.{{cite web |title=Big interview with the man set to ride Douvan and Faugheen over Christmas |url=https://www.racingpost.com/news/to-ride-the-horses-i-have-in-the-last-few-weeks-is-what-every-jockey-wants-aeopx1p1qnpB/ |work=Racing Post|date=12 December 2017}} His father Tim trains point-to-point horses, his youngest sister Jody is an amateur jockey, and a cousin is retired jockey Davy Condon.{{cite web|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/racing/arid-30971693.html|title=The Daragh Ó Conchúir Interview: Family affair the Townends at Mullins Central|date=21 December 2019|work=Irish Examiner}} He attended primary school in the village of Lisgoold and then went on to Midleton CBS Secondary School. While at school, he competed in pony racing. Having lost his mother Josephine to cancer, he left school after junior certificate and became an apprentice at the yard of trainer Willie Mullins, where his cousin was a jockey.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/09/paul-townend-gold-cup-ruby-walsh-willie-mullins-cheltenham-festival-horse-racing-interview|title=Paul Townend: 'Every jockey wants to have Ruby Walsh’s success'|date=9 March 2023|work=The Guardian}}

Career

Townend started his racing career riding on the flat. His first win was on The Chip Chopman in an apprentice handicap at Limerick on 22 June 2007, when he was sixteen. He rode ten winners that season, but switched to riding over fences as a conditional jockey in 2008 due to his weight.{{cite web|url=https://www.irishracing.com/news/A-Z-factfile-for-Grand-National-runners/60140|title=A-Z factfile for Grand National runners|date=14 April 2012|work=irishracing.com}} In July 2008 he rode Indian Pace to victory in the Galway Hurdle. There were no more wins until November 2008, when he rode Hurricane Fly to victory in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle on his first ride in a Grade 1 for Mullins. He had been given the ride because Mullins' number one jockey was sidelined with an injury. On New years Eve 2008 he rode out his claim by winning a treble at Tramore.{{cite web |title=Townend's teenage kicks |url=https://m.independent.ie/sport/horse-racing/townends-teenage-kicks/26519117.html |work=Irish Independent|date=7 March 2009}} He had his first ride in the Grand National in 2009, coming eleventh on Irish Invader. He rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 2011, when What A Charm, trained by Arthur Moore, won the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle.{{cite web|url=https://www.hri.ie/statistics/jockey/data/?jid=6277|title=Paul Townend|access-date=12 March 2025|work=Horse Racing Ireland}} That season he became Irish jump racing Champion Jockey for the first time.

A bizarre incident in the Growise Champion Novice Chase at the 2018 Punchestown Festival cost Townend a 21 day ban for dangerous riding. Riding Al Boum Photo for Mullins, he had mistakenly thought that the last fence was to be bypassed and carried out another horse.{{cite web |title=Panicked Townend apologises for 'genuine mistake' |url=https://www.rte.ie/sport/racing/2018/0425/957082-panicked-paul-townend-apologises-for-genuine-mistake-punchestown/ |date=25 April 2018|work=RTÉ}} The ban did not take effect until the start of the 2018/19 season, and Townend gained a treble the day after the incident.{{cite web |title=Punchestown: Townend treble banishes Tuesday blues |url=https://www.rte.ie/sport/racing/2018/0425/957210-punchestown-townend-double-banishes-tuesday-blues/|date=25 April 2018|work=RTÉ}} In March 2019 Townend rode Al Boum Photo in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, winning by two-and-a-half lengths to give both Townend and Mullins a first win in the race.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/47588103|title=Cheltenham Festival 2019: Al Boum Photo claims Gold Cup for trainer Willie Mullins|date=15 March 2019|work=BBC}} Later that month, Townend achieved his maiden century, riding his 100th Irish winner at Clonmel.{{cite web |title=Clonmel win seals maiden century for Paul Townend |url=https://www.rte.ie/sport/racing/2019/0326/1038740-clonmel-win-seals-maiden-century-for-paul-townend/|date=26 March 2019|work=RTÉ}} At the end of the 2018/19 season he was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey for the second time with 109 winner. When Walsh retired in May 2019, Townend too his place as number one jockey for Mullins.{{cite web|url=https://www.racingpost.com/news/paul-townend-if-i-can-have-half-as-much-success-as-ruby-ill-be-thrilled-ac9Q23D281lZ/|title=Paul Townend: if I can have half as much success as Ruby I'll be thrilled|date=3 May 2019|work=Racing Post}}

In 2020 Townend became top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival for the first time. He had 5 winners including a second win on Al Boum Photo in Gold Cup.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/racing/2020/03/13/cheltenhams-top-jockey-paul-townend-quiet-guy-heart-lion/|title=Cheltenham's top jockey Paul Townend is 'a quiet guy with the heart of a lion'|date=13 March 2020|work=The Telegraph}} At the end of the 2019/20 season Townend was crowned Irish jump racing Champion Jockey for the third time. He held the title for the next three seasons. He was top jockey at the Cheltenham festival in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2022 and 2023 he won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Energumene, and in 2023 and 2024 achieved back-to-back victories in the Gold Cup on Galopin Des Champs, equalling Pat Taaffe's record of four wins in the race. In 2024 he also won the Champion Hurdle on State Man.

In April 2023, Townend won the Irish Grand National with I Am Maximus, owned by JP McManus and trained by Mullins.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/65233060|title=Irish Grand National: I Am Maximus wins for Willie Mullins after sensational Paul Townend ride|date=10 April 2023|work=BBC}} The following year, the partnership won the Aintree Grand National.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/68808459|title=Grand National 2024 result: Where your horse finished|date=13 April 2024|work=BBC}} It was Townend's thirteenth ride in the race. He had only completed the course on three occasions, coming eleventh on Irish Invader in 2009, sixteenth on Prince De Beauchene in 2014 and third on Gaillard Du Mesnil in 2023.{{cite web|url=https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/grand-national-jockeys-records-of-the-riders/208729|title=Grand National Jockeys: Records of the riders|date=14 April 2023|work=Sporting Life}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/65287308|title=Grand National 2023 result: Where your horse finished|date=15 April 2023|work=BBC}}

Personal life

Townend lives in Co Kilkenny with his girlfriend Sophie Vard Ryan and three Shetland ponies.{{Cite web |title=Interview with A Man: Paul Townend |url=https://thegloss.ie/interview-with-a-man-paul-townend/ |date=28 April 2024|work=The Gloss Magazine}}

Cheltenham Festival winners (38)

Major wins

{{flagicon|Ireland}} Ireland

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{{flagicon|UK}} Great Britain

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{{flagicon|United States}} United States

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{{flagicon|France}} France

References

{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Townend, Paul}}

Category:Living people

Category:1990 births

Category:Irish jockeys

Category:Equestrians from County Cork