Ruby Walsh: Understated Townend best big-race jockey in the business
On Thursday Victory Picture: Crowned By Healy 2024 Fitting In Riding The king Sensational Finale: George Townend Banbridge Racing To A Paul
Familiarity is supposed to breed contempt, but I guess that applies to what stops exciting you, and when I woke 25 minutes before my alarm clock on St Stephen’s morning, I had a little giggle to myself.
A chair was waiting for me in Kempton, not a saddle on the back of a superstar, but those galloping jets would be there for me to watch and, obviously, that still lights my fire.
Maverick had only finished five and a half hours earlier, but my subconscious was already on the outskirts of London, and when I strolled onto the EI154, I wasn’t surprised to see Paul Townend already on board. He doesn’t ever look nervous or seem uptight, but he even seemed more excited than his usual default setting.
So did the several racing fans on the flight and the Aer Lingus ground crew who ushered us onto the plane. Everyone wanted winners, and that's what Paul wanted to be: A winner. It never looked likely for him aboard Lossiemouth, who looked at sea trying to follow Burdett Road’s tempo, but the horse most people at Kempton had come to see, Constitution Hill, oozed his usual class.
The Kempton crowd roared their approval when Nico De Boinville allowed him to ease to the front going to two out, and they cheered him all the way to the parade ring as he delivered precisely what any fan of a good horse would want to see.
On the other hand, the King George was a totally different race to watch as Il Est Francais bounded around the track, jumping from fence to fence and never letting those behind him get comfortable.
Somebody had to gamble he would eventually stop and be brave enough not to chase him, to stay at their speed and hope their finishing surge would propel them to victory.
The risk would be to end up a fast-finishing second, and the finger-pointing those riders get, but Paul Townend did it, waiting and waiting until the field dragged him to within shouting distance of the gallant French frontrunner before Paul pressed the button on Banbridge to add a King George to his Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, and Grand National haul of 2024.
The year still has four days left to run, and the same Paul Townend will pull into Leopardstown early today, climb from his car like he slept in it for hours, and disappear into the weighing room with as little fuss or conversation as he can manage.
Should he ride a winner before the Savills Chase, any interview will be conducted by using the word ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. ‘We’ will be looking forward to getting on Galopin, ‘we’ will be keeping it simple, ‘we’ will be hoping to find a good rhythm and ‘we’ are hoping to do things right.
The only thing is that the rest of us all know ‘he’ will be the only person who can control any of that, and he knows that, too. His main rival today is a man of even fewer words who will have appeared in the weighing room without anyone noticing him even entering the racecourse.
Mark Walsh and Paul Townend won't discuss what will happen or try to bluff each other before it starts because this is very simple. Paul Townend will bounce out and try his best to drag the speed out of Fact To File, to grind out a victory on Galopin Des Champs.
Mark will follow him, stalk him, and leave it as late as he can to challenge Paul, hoping his Fact To File is quicker than Paul’s Galopin. On paper, this contest could have the hair standing on the back of your neck as they go toe to toe to the last, generating the same noise Constitution Hill did at Kempton on Thursday.
I hope reality lives up to the expectation, and these Galacticos get to go to war as they approach the last because we want a battle, not a solo romp if fate intervenes and takes one out early. The young pretender challenges the reigning king on the mid-season battlegrounds, battlefields that have already altered the shape of the spring festivals.
On Friday, Gaelic Warrior went down to the game front-running Solness and didn’t really look like a Champion Chase winner in waiting but more like a horse who wanted to step up in trip, and one would imagine a Ryanair entry will be on the cards for him.
Sir Gino looked like a rocket at Kempton, and with him on that side of the Irish Sea and Majborough on this side, an Arkle showdown in March looks like a mouthwatering match-up.
Romeo Coolio boosted his status as a potential future star when winning at Leopardstown, while, on Thursday, Potters Charm did his reputation no harm when winning the Fornby at Aintree.
On Sunday, State Man gets his chance to answer Constitution Hill's battle cry, but Brighterdaysahead stands in his way. She conquered him in the Morgiana, but as I left Kempton on Thursday, Paul Townend started using the ‘we’ word again.
“You know, we could give him a race with the big lad at home.” I understood him, but I will have nothing to do with it, and only he will. What he believes is State Man will challenge Constitution Hill in March, and tomorrow will be the starting point for that match-up in the spring.
What I also understood long before I went to Kempton is that Paul Townend is not a team, ‘we’ is his understated ego that never wants to sound cocky, arrogant, or even confident.
He doesn’t lack the latter and has never been either of the other two, but ‘we’ is ‘I,’ and he is gifted. To quote AP McCoy in the aftermath of the King George, there are jockeys and big-race jockeys, and Paul is simply the best big-race jockey.
I agree, and he does it with a personality nobody could dislike.