Willie Mullins (left) and Paul Townend with Galopin Des Champs

Top jockey Paul Townend on breaking Cheltenham Festival records ahead of 2026 meeting

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Wed February 11, 2026 · 11h ago

Top jockey Paul Townend has admitted that breaking Ruby Walsh’s record of 59 Cheltenham Festival winners is “a bit far away” but has his sights set on doing what no other rider has achieved – winning five Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Townend, 36, is currently on 38 Festival winners and will have a strong book of rides to help him get closer to Walsh’s record.

However, having landed the Gold Cup twice with both Al Boum Photo (2019, 2020) and Galopin Des Champs (2023, 2024), he believes that there might be a better chance of notching one more than only the late Pat Taaffe managed.

On Walsh’s record he said: “I think it’s 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.

“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.”

Asked whether he gets a kick out of achieving feats that not even his predecessor, Walsh, could manage, he added: “He didn’t leave too much. It’s cool. It’s obviously hard to follow someone who’s done a lot like that, and you’re compared all the time.

Paul Townend talks to the press (credit: Inpho Photography/The Jockey Club)

“He didn’t leave a lot to be done so to be able to repay Willie, who has given me rides since I started – I’ve only ever had one job and he trusted me to put me up on Hurricane Fly when I was 18 - so to be able to give big winners in races that Ruby hadn’t managed to is nice.

“Tuesday and the Friday are usually my busiest days. It’s nice if on Tuesday you can get a couple in the bag, try and rob a couple the next two days and then I’ve been lucky that I’ve had Gold Cup horses and I’ve always had a big bullet to fire.

“It gets better every time. It’s addictive. I remember the first time I rode a winner at Cheltenham. It was brilliant. I kind of didn’t know what to expect or what to do. I think when I won my first Gold Cup I thought nothing would ever top that and the next year it was better. It is addictive and it’s hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it.”

With The Festival now less than a month away, Townend described the build-up to Jump Racing’s ‘Olympics’ as “an exciting time”.

He said: “It’s always exciting. I suppose from Christmas time on it all starts ranking up and every weekend runs into the next. It doesn’t get any simpler every year we go there, you’re always trying to figure out what’s what and where they are and especially trying to sort out the novices and things and what’s stepping forward.

“It is exciting and if it wasn’t exciting, you probably wouldn’t still be doing it. It’s an exciting time of year.

“You’re hoping something that will just stick its head up and say you have to ride this one. It’s good that Willie leaves everything late because the later the decision the easier it usually is but the grass is always greener as well so you’re never too confident.”

Asked what a good Festival would look like for him, Townend added: “I don’t put numbers on it to be honest. I remember heading out for the Bumper one year after a lot of good rides had got beaten before, that so that’s a lasting memory I have and I was delighted to get one on the board, so it’s the old cliché that one early is so important. If you have a good book of rides the first day and one of them can click it actually does just take the monkey off your back and you can ride a bit freer.

“It’s ‘park it, move on and if something gets beaten don’t dwell on it’. The turnaround is really quick for a jockey. When you go racing and you’re trying to find something to do between races it can drag out.

“The more lows you have there (Cheltenham) it gets easier to turn it around. You just get used to it and you park it. And it’s easier because the people I work with are so understanding of the sport between Willie and owners that you can’t dwell on it – win or lose.

“If you rode a winner you still have to go out and you’re always focused on the next race. If you just got beaten on one and you’re going out to owners who have their big bullet to fire in the next it would be a lot worse and harder to park if I didn’t have as many rides in the big races over there as I do. If you have one ride on the Tuesday and you have to wait until Friday and Tuesday’s got beat then it’s a long time to dwell on it.”

Our man in Ireland has the latest ahead of Cheltenham

Our man in Ireland has the latest from Willie Mullins ahead of Cheltenham

Asked how hard it is for horses and jockeys to adapt to English ground when used to Irish conditions, Townend continued: “Someone once told me the good ones travel on anything and I suppose the whole race, when you go to England, the tempo in general, regardless of the ground, is quicker over there so it’s just experience of getting used to that.

“As much as it’s getting used to the ground and the tracks over there it’s getting used to the jockeys and their style of riding. When you’re riding against Jack (Kennedy) and Darragh (O’Keefe) and Mark (Walsh), Danny (Mullins) and them over here, it’s second nature.

“You see them doing something and you’ll know what they’re planning next. But it’s good to get over there and ride against the English lads. There’s a lot of young lads coming through there as well and it’s good to just watch them and see what their styles are.

“You have a poke down Sean Bowen or Harry Cobden’s inner and they’re not going to let you up there too easy! They’re tough cookies and good jockeys over there and they’re as competitive as we are.”

Townend then ran through some of the leading Closutton contenders for next month’s Festival:

Fact To File

On the Irish Gold Cup and whether to supplement for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup: “It was a good race. I thought we went a good gallop. I thought Fact To File was very good on the day. Gaelic Warrior was very good by probably over-racing for the tempo we were going at. I thought it rode a proper race. Thankfully that decision isn’t up to me or doesn’t really affect me too much, but it adds another layer to what’s an exciting and open Gold Cup.”

Galopin Des Champs

“He gave me a better feel than probably at Christmas. He had stepped up I thought throughout the race. Throughout the race he gave me a better feel than at Christmas. He was more alive and the rustiness from Christmas was probably gone. I suppose the last half mile was a little bit disappointing, but as Willie has said he was afraid that Christmas at three miles at that level had left a little mark on him.

“I suppose when you see what finished around him it was little bit disappointing but he put his head down and galloped to the line but I got a good feel off him throughout the race.

“I’d love it for the horse. I’d never turn away another Gold Cup that’s for sure. I thought there was a lot to like and the feel that I got off him the last day at Leopardstown and hopefully he can build on that again and I think he can.”

Asked if the race might have left a mark on him: “I suppose it’s a fear for everything that ran at the DRF this year because it was just different to every other year so you don’t know until you try but I suppose they’ve had runs, gotten out so hopefully it won’t left too much of a mark as it might have if it was their first run of the season.”

On whether he might get off two-time Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs to ride Gaelic Warrior: “Nothing’s impossible but it would be very hard. I don’t think Galopin is finished yet. I’m not saying I would get off him but if I got off him and he went by me up the hill I’d be keeping a wide berth of me for the whole week!

“Every decision, even if the betting is suggesting that one horse is much shorter – not just in the Gold Cup but novices or anything – then you still give it a lot of thought. That’s just the competitiveness and how much we want to win. Every decision is taken seriously over there.”

Rating the Cheltenham Festival bankers

Lossiemouth

“I suppose this year is different in the way the Champion Hurdle is setting up. I obviously didn’t think she could beat State Man last year and in the DRF I stuck with him but unfortunately we haven’t got him this year.

“The winter we’ve had, is the ground going to be slower, she does seem to come alive and you get a better feel off her at Cheltenham than anywhere else so I definitely don’t think it’s impossible for her to win.”

Kopek Des Bordes

“He’s very good. I’m very happy with him. He’s coming along every week. Obviously, he hasn’t got a racecourse run in him but if we don’t that’s the way it is now.

“It is a worry. You worry about everything going there but he had enough runs as a hurdler and that was a big help that day (last year) and that took that worry out of it. Of course, you’d like to have more runs in him but I loved what he did in Punchestown the other day. He was good and he learned plenty from Navan. We went a good gallop and he learned plenty again. But it’s not ideal going there with one run - it never is.

“The owners are a great bunch and they enjoy it so much and they’re not afraid to show how much they enjoy it. He’s a horse of a lifetime for them. Charlie’s been in racing a long time looking for one like him and he’s going to enjoy it now he has it. He’s an exciting horse and you’d definitely rather have him than have to take him on.”

Final Demand

“I suppose it’s blown up in a competitive race and the lack of a run he put in at Leopardstown but I never got any of the feel of him that I got last year or at Navan. If I hadn’t ridden him at Navan I’d be very worried.

“There’s enough time to turn it around and Gaelic Warrior is a good example. He was beaten, you figure out why and you rectify it for Cheltenham. But he’s a lot better than he was the other day.

“He’s a decent work horse but he’s a stayer. He’s not going to come up there like a Hurricane Fly or something, but he’s a good work horse.”