Townend: Grand National reflections plus Gold Dancer incident

There can be few sportsman who have experienced the same range of emotions in a 24-hour period as Paul Townend at Aintree this week.

On Saturday, the brilliant Irishman landed his second Randox Grand National in three years on I Am Maximus, who became the first horse since Red Rum in 1977 to reclaim the great race.

Yet on the previous afternoon Townend was left distraught when his mount, the Mullins-trained Gold Dancer, had to be euthanised shortly after winning the Mildmay Novices’ Chase.

Townend was criticised in some quarters for not pulling his mount up after he made a bad mistake at the final fence. To be able to put that behind him and perform with such clarity on the biggest stage of all spoke volumes.

“It’s my job to do it, but it’s not easy. When you get out there you’ve got to perform,” he said.

“We’re used to getting falls and getting beaten and trying to win the next race, it’s like a soccer player who misses a penalty, they want to take the next one.

“I rode I Am Maximus on the track this morning and he was very fresh and well and he tanked around with me. He just loves it here.

“He was showing all the right signs at home and we got an awful lot of luck on the way round as well. There were plenty of fallers, but it was all happening out there away from me and I was in a little bubble on my own and he was tough, wasn’t he.

“It was like an old-fashioned National and I got some luck and I also got in deep to a couple fences. I think it was at Becher’s I was right on the inside and had a little peck, but he found his feet and you need luck. People talk about what the National has become, but go try to win it and then see how easy it is.”

At one stage Ben Jones and Jordans shot clear of the field, but Townend was content to bide his time.

“I always feel it’s a long way home from the elbow here, so when I saw how far clear he was I was happy to wait,” said Townend.

“I wouldn’t have said I was confident I was going to win, but the further we went the more likely I thought it was!”

Reflecting on Friday’s Gold Dancer incident, Townend said: “If I could feel what I know now, obviously I would have pulled the horse up.

“I didn’t even feel it until we got around the bend, not even by the winning line. It’s just sad.

“No one was as upset as me as I was the closest to it in what happened. We love these horses. When we landed, he gathered himself up and galloped up to the line and felt fine until we eased up to a trot and turned the bend.

“We can only tell from feel, it was the end of three miles and he had put up a bold jumping performance and had been on the pace all the way. After one stride he popped straight back up and got galloping again – he felt fine to me.”