Having the job as stable jockey to record-breaking trainer Willie Mullins ensures Paul Townend remains the envy of his weighing room rivals as he partners the battalion of superstars based at Closutton.
Townend has won the Cheltenham Gold Cup four times since 2019 and will be bidding for a Blue Riband hat-trick at the Cheltenham Festival this season on the magnificent Galopin Des Champs.
Age: 34 |
Height: 5ft 10" |
Wins: 1,434 |
Cheltenham wins: 34 |
Total winnings: £27,602,233 |
Net worth: Unknown |
Townend has long been associated with trainer Mullins and he has been stable jockey to the Closutton handler ever since Ruby Walsh announced his retirement.
From Lisgoold in Co Cork, Townend originally joined Mullins as an apprentice Flat jockey and has gone on to be crowned champion jockey over the jumps in Ireland on six separate occasions.
Townend has won the Gold Cup at Cheltenham four times, twice aboard Al Boum Photo in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020, then again in 2023 and 2024 on the mighty Galopin Des Champs.
His success in the race means he is now level with the legendary Pat Taaffe, who also won four in the 1960s.
His maiden success ended the long wait that Mullins, the most successful Cheltenham Festival trainer of all-time, had endured to get his hands on the Blue Riband.
Having ridden another six winners at the Cheltenham Festival in 2024, Townend has taken his total tally at that esteemed meeting to 34 and, given Mullins' strength in depth, there should be plenty more success to follow.
Townend is 5ft 10" tall.
Townend is a six-time champion jockey over jumps in Ireland and has been crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival four times, including in each of the last three years.
His tally of 34 Festival winners in the Cotswolds includes four Gold Cup wins, two Queen Mother Champion Chases, one Champion Hurdle and one Stayers' Hurdle.
His tally of Grade 1 wins stands at 26 at the Cheltenham Festival, with his four Gold Cups matched by four successes in the County Hurdle, the races in which he has tasted the most success.
He won the Grand National at Aintree for the first time in 2024 on I Am Maximus for Mullins and has a lengthy list of Grade 1 victories on Irish soil, while he signed off 2024 in Britain by winning a first King George on Banbridge.
Townend's association with Willie Mullins is the power-axis in National Hunt racing currently. The jockey has come up through the ranks at Closutton since arriving as a teenager.
He was understudy to Walsh before his retirement, though it was Townend that finally landed Mullins' maiden Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019 after many near misses in the Cotswolds showpiece.
His ties to the Mullins team typically dominate, but he is popular with plenty other Irish trainers when available and has ridden winners for Edward O'Grady, Tony Martin, Tom Mullins, and Dermot Weld, as well as a Cheltenham Festival success for Rebecca Curtis.
His King George win at Kempton in 2024 came on board Banbridge for Joseph O'Brien, a fine spare ride.
His incredible tally of top-level successes means that there are plenty of iconic horses already in Townend's career.
Al Boum Photo was the one on which he ended Mullins' Gold Cup hoodoo in 2019 and they retained the crown in 2020. Galopin Des Champs (2023, 2024) helped him repeat that feat and could make it a hat-trick in 2025.
Energumene brought him back-to-back Champion Chase wins in 2022 and 2023, while Penhill (Stayers') and State Man (Champion Hurdle) ensure he has completed the full set of Cheltenham's crown jewels.
His first Festival winner at Cheltenham was What A Charm in the 2011 Fred Winter.
I Am Maximus secured Grand National glory at Aintree in 2024 for the Cork man in what was his 13th ride in the race, while he also won Grade 1s on the likes of Hurricane Fly, Chacun Pour Soi, Vauban and Lossiemouth.