Townend: Enjoy the highs and dust yourself off to go again after disappointment

Paul Townend acknowledges the support of trainer Willie Mullins and his Closutton owners means he can maintain an elite mentality when riding at the Cheltenham Festival.

The seven-time Irish champion spoke openly about his mindset, whether he has come out victorious in an Grade One contest or been beaten when well-backed, of which he is no stranger, accepting that with the many highs will come the occasional lows – see State Man 12 months ago for the perfect example.

“It gets easier when you’ve had more (experience of) lows over there, it gets easier to turn it around. You just get used to it and park it,” said Townend, who has 38 Festival winners to his name, including a remarkable four Gold Cups.

“It’s easier because the people you work with are so understanding of the sport, between Willie and the owners, that you can’t dwell on it, win or lose.

“If you rode a winner, you still have to go out in the next race and if you’ve just got beat on one, you have owners who have their big bullet to go in the next.

“It would be a lot harder to park if I didn’t have as many rides over there as probably I do in the big races.

“If you have one good ride on the Tuesday and you have to wait until the Friday, and the Tuesday’s got beat, there’s a long time to dwell on it.”

The team at Closutton have got off to a slow start in this year’s Irish jumps championship relative to their lofty standards, sitting behind Gordon Elliott in second as the campaign continues to ramp up.

Townend, 35, remains calm about the situation with a number of big events still ahead before the season concludes in May, and he relished the challenge posed by their leading rivals at Cullentra House.

“It’s been a good season,” Townend added. “It’s been wet and we’ve been racing.

“I think this is a strong Irish team, I think there’s a lot of good horses here and it is competitive, there’s no dodging that.

“We are never quick to get out of the traps and we were probably a little bit slower maybe even this year. Gordon has rebuilt, he’s said it’s taken a while to rebuild, but it is competitive here.

“There’s still a lot of good horses we still have and we are coming into the more important part of the season now, so hopefully we can just keep improving and finish out the season as good as he has in the last few years.”

Despite his glittering CV, Townend is still some way short of illustrious predecessor Ruby Walsh’s record of 59.

As he prepares to partner Galopin Des Champs in his bid to win the Gold Cup for the third time, he said: “I think it’s (Walsh’s record) a bit far away. We just ride as many as we can there. I don’t like setting numbers for Cheltenham or winners for the season or trying to get to targets. I just find that you set yourself up for disappointment.”

Should Galopin Des Champs prevail, Townend would be out on his own in terms of victories in the great race, in which he is currently tied with Pat Taaffe, rider of the incomparable Arkle.

“The Gold Cup – that’s one I have looked at and I wouldn’t mind putting my name at the top of that list! I think there’s a better chance of riding one of them than however many to catch Ruby. It would be a special thing to do, but four is no mean feat either.”