Paul Townend

One of the biggest names in Irish racing, and in terms of a jockey, holder of arguably the biggest job in national hunt racing in both the UK and Ireland.

Paul Townend has worked his way to the top of the table when it comes to Irish racing, and his partnership with Willie Mullins is one of the biggest success stories around.

Born on September 15^th, 1990, Townend actually started his racing career with team Mullins and has never left.

A true partnership where both thrive, Mullins because he has an outstanding jockey as his number one, and Townend because of the opportunities he gets, it is a match made in heaven.

Full Results

Townend began his racing career as an apprentice in the Mullins yard, and to begin with, he was there to be a flat jockey. Weight issues took him off that path and down the national hunt path, and of course, given the yard, he was riding at, there was no need for him to switch and go elsewhere.

At a time when Townend was finding his feet and beginning to take regular rides for the yard, Ruby Walsh was employed as the number one jockey and will no doubt have been a great role model for Townend to look up to.

With the help of Willie Mullins, the racing career of Paul Townend has been full of success. He landed his first jockeys championship title in the 2010/11 season when picking up a lot of additional rides from the Mullins yard due to an injury to Ruby Walsh.

When Walsh retired from the sport in May 2019, Mullins knew what he already had inside the stable and knew there was no need to go anywhere else for a replacement.

Paul Townend was quickly named as the new number-one stable jockey in Closutton, and since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength. Townend now has the pick of the Mullins runners to ride, both in the UK & Ireland.

In the 2018/19 season, Townend hit the 100-winner mark in a season for the very first time, a year that would see him lift his second jockeys’ championship title. But the best was yet to come.

Cheltenham Festival Success and Winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup

When you think of Willie Mullins, you instantly think about big race wins, and big Cheltenham Festival wins. Of course, now, Paul Townend is the man to ride those winners for Willie, and that has given Townend an excellent Cheltenham Festival record.

He recorded his first Cheltenham Festival success back in 2011 when he rode What A Charm to win the Fred Winder handicap hurdle. This was actually not trained by Willie Mullins, it was an extra mount picked up by Townend, trained by Irish handler Arthur Moore.

Three years out of the spotlight, with no festival winners, Townend was back with a bang in 2015, landing three winners at the meeting. From then, it’s been a case of going from strength to strength, and of course, moving into the number one role at the Willie Mullins yard certainly helped with that.

In 2020, the first Cheltenham Festival without Ruby Walsh, Paul Townend landed his first top jockey award at the meeting, riding five winners, two seconds and three-thirds across the week, from an excellent book of rides.

Going back a year before to 2019, Townend delivered a race that Willie Mullins had been craving for some time, and that was the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Riding Al Boum Photo, Townend won the showpiece of the entire week, a race that had long eluded the master Irish trainer but no more.

Not only that, but the pair returned to Cheltenham 12 months later, and at the 2020 festival, one of the five winners that gave Townend the jockeys award was Al Boum Photo winning the Gold Cup for a second time.

While the power of the Mullins team has helped Townend deliver at the Cheltenham Festival, so far, that hasn’t been the case at the Aintree Grand National meeting. The pair are yet to win the Grand National, though, of course, with the firepower on offer, that could happen any year.

First Grand National Success in 2024

The Grand National had eluded Paul Townend until 2024, when he would finally get his hands on the trophy. He’d not had much luck at all in the race prior to 2024. Most of his rides saw him fail to complete, but he had the right horse under him this time around.

Trained by his boss Willie Mullins, I Am Maximus was the horse that gave Paul his first Grand National success. The pair would storm clear and win with relative ease, staying on very strongly over this extreme distance, which was helped by a very strong round of jumping.

The official winning distance was recorded at seven lengths, with Townend pushing the button and moving clear in the closing stages after the final fence.

With plenty of support in the betting ring, I Am Maximus was sent off as favourite for the contest and fully rewarded his supporters.

The pair would head back to Aintree in 2025, where they would look to repeat the feat and win again. They almost did. Despite plenty more weight on his back, I Am Maximus ran another great race for Townend, and they would finish a close second behind stablemate Nick Rockett.