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. [6] 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. [3] On New years Eve 2008 he rode out his claim by winning a treble at Tramore. [7] He had his first ride in the Grand National in 2009, coming eleventh on Irish Invader. [6] 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. [1] That season he became Irish jump racing Champion Jockey for the first time. [3]
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. [8] The ban did not take effect until the start of the 2018/19 season, and Townend gained a treble the day after the incident. [9] 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. [10] Later that month, Townend achieved his maiden century, riding his 100th Irish winner at Clonmel. [11] At the end of the 2018/19 season he was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey for the second time with 109 winner. [1] When Walsh retired in May 2019, Townend too his place as number one jockey for Mullins. [12]
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. [13] 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. [1] He was top jockey at the Cheltenham festival in 2022, 2023 and 2024. [1] 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. [1]
In April 2023, Townend won the Irish Grand National with I Am Maximus, owned by JP McManus and trained by Mullins. [14] The following year, the partnership won the Aintree Grand National. [15] 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. [16] [17]
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