It’s a rare jockey that lacks resolve. But by any elite sporting standards, Paul Townend’s resilience in landing last Saturday’s Aintree Grand National on board I Am Maximus was impressive.
The ride itself was technically superb enough to have the horse’s trainer, Willie Mullins, and owner JP McManus, purring in admiration. Just as in 2024, and when I Am Maximus was runner-up last year, Townend smuggled a famously quirky partner around the greatest test in National Hunt racing. When he eventually pounced, it was definitive and decisive.
At 35 and with a lengthy catalogue of superbly executed big-race triumphs under his belt already, Ireland’s champion jockey is sufficiently at the peak of his powers to make the composite of judgment, horsemanship and cold execution in delivering such an outcome seem almost everyday.
Yet it was anything but, particularly in the context of just 24 hours previously. Townend’s experience when his mount Gold Dancer had to be euthanised shortly after passing the post first in a Grade One Chase was harsh enough. The consequent pile-on was a nightmarish example of the digital binary blame-game.
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Gold Dancer’s final-fence mistake wasn’t unusual. Landing awkwardly, his back legs splayed and he took a couple of strides to gather himself. Townend pushed him out to the line.
Nevertheless, even to an inexpert eye, something was not quite right with the horse’s action. So much became sadly obvious when he slowed to a trot and Townend quickly jumped off. Gold Dancer had injured his back, presumably when blundering, and had to be put down.
Social media immediately lit up. Why hadn’t Townend pulled up immediately after the mistake, or even a few strides later. It was obvious something was wrong. On ITV, commentator Richard Hoiles said on the approach to the line: “Gold Dancer out in front but not moving great I have to say.” The logic was if a commentator could see it, how could the jockey on his back not realise.
On the Badlands of X and other platforms, it was portrayed by racing’s critics as another example of animals used as disposable objects in a ruthless pursuit of success. Comparisons were drawn to an incident at lowly Fakenham last month when an apparently exhausted horse clambered over the final fence and walked past the line. On the eve of the sport’s biggest shop-window, it was outrage catnip.
Townend explained to the stewards that nothing felt wrong on the horse until he was past the line, slowed to a trot and the unfortunate Gold Dancer shifted left at a bend. Crucially, the British Horseracing Authority’s equine welfare chief James Given backed him up. There was no official blame attached for an immensely upsetting incident.
The response in some quarters was that the sport was simply closing ranks to protect one of its own. Just look at the pictures. But such a black-and-white approach ignores the grey reality of it being entirely possible in such a scenario for two things to be simultaneously true.
It was clear Gold Dancer wasn’t moving right. But professionals insist there’s no contradiction in a rider not feeling such a problem when a horse is galloping in a straight line. Talking to a number of people with substantial race-riding experience – and no skin in this sorry episode – there’s a distinct sympathy for Townend’s predicament.
A majority of horses that make the mistake as Gold Dancer gather themselves within a stride or two and continue without incident. It makes pulling up impractical. It’s an invidious position since jockeys are also required to make every effort to ensure their best possible position. Failure to do so risks a very different kind of outrage.
It’s not like Townend hasn’t shown the gumption to make difficult decisions in similar circumstances before. El Fabiolo was an all but unbackable 2/9 favourite for the 2024 Champion Chase at Cheltenham when the horse made a bad mistake at the fifth fence. The jockey said he felt it prudent to immediately pull up El Fabiolo considering the way he’d stumbled.
So much ultimately comes down to the feel jockeys get off the horses they ride. It’s an intangible nuance that’s, by definition, invisible to those of us watching what was a desperately upsetting incident for all concerned.
For Townend to be able to park such a furore so effectively that 24 hours later he pulled off one of the great Grand National winning spins was a remarkable demonstration of steely acuity. It’s not the first time he’s overcome a setback in his career. He’s a leading light among a crop of top jumps jockeys such as Jack Kennedy and Harry Cobden that concede nothing to previous generations of riders in terms of physical and mental toughness.
In fact, some “in my day” merchants might ponder how they’d have coped with the intense scrutiny of a culture where so much gets filtered through a digital septic tank. In such an environment, the rush to instant judgment too often fails to acknowledge how an incident like Gold Dancer can boil down to an unfortunate chain of events that conspires to deliver a horrible outcome.
Something for the Weekend
Ridiculous programming sees a third major ‘National’ prize in just 12 days, but it can nevertheless result in Quebecois (3.35) landing Saturday’s Coral Scottish Grand National in Ayr.
Having raced over shorter trips for much of the season, he stepped up in distance with a fine third to Johnnywho at Cheltenham. Now he’s back in Ayr where he landed a three-mile handicap hurdle last season. Harry Cobden’s mount has a big weight but it’s a largely compressed handicap and Quebecois has the look of a horse being pointed at this for some time.
Gordon Elliott sends the expensive purchase Skerry Hill (4.48) to Ayr for Saturday’s bumper. A Down Royal winner in October, he carries the colours of Scottish owner Ronnie Bartlett. Decent ground shouldn’t be a problem to him.
