RACING:PAUL TOWNEND already stands at the top of his profession but the prodigiously talented jockey could take his career to another level again in today's refixed Hennessy Gold Cup card at Leopardstown.
Willie Mullins’s 20-year-old protégé is currently on top of this season’s jockey standings with 57 winners in Ireland as he continues to make the most of Ruby Walsh’s absence through injury.
There is also a big-race haul that includes over a dozen Grade One victories over the last couple of years. But today’s prestigious card sees Townend with rides on the likely favourites in three of the four Grade One races, including the potential superstar pairing of Mikael D’Haguenet (Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase) and Zaidpour (Deloitte Novice Hurdle.)
Dermot Weld has always had a keen eye for riding talent on the up and he has also engaged Townend for his Triumph hope Unaccompanied in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle.
In fact the one negative for the Cork-born jockey is that Cooldine has been ruled out of the big-race centrepiece due to a wind problem which sees the six-time Hennessy winner Willie Mullins now represented solely by Kempes in the €180,000 feature. Townend switches to the outsider, Made In Taipan.
Mullins summed up a general feeling yesterday, though, when pointing to the likely testing ground conditions as having a crucial influence on the big-race outcome. “I’m not sure it will be Kempes’ ground. I think you’d have to look at Joncol, The Listener and Money Trix as horses that go on the ground,” the champion trainer argued.
No one knows better what is required to win the Hennessy and with increasingly bullish reports of some “savage” pieces of work by the defending champion Joncol, the Paul Nolan-trained horse can become the sixth to win the big race more than once.
In Cheltenham terms, however, it is the Deloitte that could exert most influence as the cream of Ireland’s novice hurdlers line up for the 10-runner two-and-a-quarter-mile event. Shot From The Hip, Oscars Well and Hidden Universe have been very impressive this season already and this intermediate distance allows this race to be a potentially hugely-informative pre-festival clash.
But the impression that Zaidpour made in the Royal Bond remains the strongest this season and Mullins is banking on a return to form after a 1 to 4 defeat to First Lieutenant last time.
Townend came in for some flak after that but his trainer said yesterday: “Paul has a quiet style and he was waiting for the horse to come to life under him. I think the horse didn’t fire properly on the day and I’m hoping for better.”
A two week gap between the Fairyhouse’s winter festival and Leopardstown’s Christmas festival is also being blamed by Mullins for Mikael D’Haguenet’s eclipse in December but significantly Townend is still on board today despite the presence of Quel Esprit. “Running both is not ideal but Grade Ones are Grade Ones and both horses are good enough take their chance,” Mullins said while Townend reported of Mikael D’Haguenet: “I’m sure he can show his true colours. He jumped right when he got beaten but when I schooled him recently he jumped straight as a die. He just wasn’t himself the last day. But he seems to be back to his old self now.”
Unaccompanied is a rare Moyglare Stud runner over jumps and was impressive on her New Years Eve debut. The best of Ireland’s juveniles take on a pair of cross-channel hopes headed by Indian Daudaie but Unaccompanied can justify her high-ranking in the Triumph’s ante-post betting.
However there would be no more significant or poignant moment today than if Askthemaster can land the handicap hurdle. Robert Tyner’s family have been left devastated by the tragic death of their 19-year-old son Jack, who was buried in Cork on Thursday. The horse looks reasonably well weighted on his return to the smaller obstacles.
