JUST back Jody.

In an increasingly sophisticated betting world of constant analysis, market trends and all sorts of algorithms, maybe sometimes you just have to keep it simple.

If you had a tenner on every one of Jody Townend’s mounts over the last four seasons, you’d be up €1,009.

Of course such statistics can be described as circumstantial as much as indicative of ability. Townend’s position of largely riding Willie Mullins-trained second strings in bumpers is perhaps the angle here, as such is the conveyor belt of talent coming through in Closutton, it’s inevitable that the hierarchy of the Mullins representation in bumpers doesn’t always play out to market expectations.

The Grade 3 mares’ bumper at Punchestown last week was a good example, with Patrick Mullins riding the evens favourite Fun Fun Fun, but Jody winning the race on 4/1 shot Junta Marvel.

Yet, needless to say, Willie has never been one to stand for any deficiencies from his jockeys and Townend has long proved her worth to the now 17-time champion trainer.

Her win on Junta Marvel capped another fine season, in which her 18 winners was comfortably enough for a third champion lady amateur rider title and for her to finish third in the overall amateur riders’ table for the second year running.

More significantly, she rode out her claim in the most perfect way, by riding her first career double on West End Victory at Thurles in February, the brace initiated by her oldest ally Port Rashid for her father Tim - the same horse she rode her first track winner on and first winner over fences.

That was “a mighty day” and naturally, she is a much different jockey to the one who saw the winner’s enclosure for the first time in April 2018, yet the determination has grown even stronger.

“If you asked me growing up what I wanted to be, I never would have said a jockey,” she recalls. “It was only when I got a bit of success that the hunger grew and then it’s been all I wanted to do, and it’s gone from strength to strength.

“I was only talking to one of the girls the other morning about how long I’ve been in Closutton. I first came up with Paul and rode out when I was 12. There are pictures of me and Golden Silver and Hurricane Fly, so I’ve been here for 13 years now.

“Look, I was really lucky that Paul brought me up first. Not everyone gets that sort of opportunity. Willie has been unbelievable to me and it has to be said, I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. The owners have been so good to put me up, and really, I can’t thank Willie enough, he has given me a great backing.”

Family

The Townend family is a tight knit family. Always close to each other and always close to horses. Tim always trained a few for point-to-points and for the track. Jody is “the baby”, seven years younger than Paul, with Caroline the eldest by a year.

“I was dragged to the pony racing every Sunday when Paul would be riding,” Jody recalls. “But I loved it and I made great friends out of it. I think we were always a close family but when Mam passed away, we became a little closer. We’d be out every evening with the ponies and I suppose we knew nothing else.

“There are great camcorder videos of Paul running around beside me on a pony. Inevitably I’d fall off a few times. Caroline never rode as much as me and Paul. When Mam passed away, she had to take on plenty. She was only 16, just finishing school and she had to cook the dinners for all of us and organise things. She was very good to me.

“Dad would always drive me away for show jumping events and the like. He was very good to me as well. I go back down to him most weekends that I can. I’d still always be asking him about my races. He’d be faster to criticise me than Paul. I think Paul is afraid I’d fall out with him over it!”

With that said, it’s more than obvious Jody is close with her older brother, who managed to secure his sixth champion jockey title last weekend after another imperious season that saw him ride 22 Grade 1 winners.

She’d be in a better place than most to account for Paul’s trajectory to the top of his game.

“He always had a great head,” she says. “He was always able to handle the pressure of the job he’s in but he always had that growing up as well. Even pony racing and stuff, he was well able to handle the big days.

“Even with the build-up to the big days, you would see a difference in him but he doesn’t get too bogged down in it. He has a great head but I suppose you have to, with the position he’s in, to take the bad days and don’t let the good days take over either. I suppose general talent gets you a long way as well.”

That is certainly the case for her as well but general talent can only get you so far in National Hunt racing, and she can attest to that. Just as she had started to make a name for herself by taking the opportunities given to her by Willie Mullins during the 2018-19 season, she sustained a significant back injury that escalated to a serious status.

Routine

It happened during a routine schooling session at Closutton, when the horse she was riding fell and resulted in her breaking her T12 vertebrae. She needed six screws, two rods and a stablisier implemented to her spinal cord.

Four months later she was ahead of schedule when she returned to riding out but immediately started to feel pain down her right leg. The area in which one of the incisions was made had started to weep, so she had to go back up to the surgeon to have it cleaned out. She thought that was it, but six weeks later the same thing happened again and the surgeons discovered an infection that had gone into the bone via the metalwork.

She had to have all the metalwork taken out and then went on a drip for six weeks. In total, she was out for nine months, but tellingly, she never lost the urge to get back into the saddle.

“Poor Dad nearly had heart failure during the whole thing,” Jody recalls. “I think he was more worried about it than me. I suppose I kind of went through the motions with it. Anytime I was talking to the surgeons, I asked them when I could go back riding. I think all my family knew then that they had lost me to racing!

“It was a long nine months when all I wanted to do was go back riding. I was never too worried about it to be honest. I suppose when the infection came after the second operation and went into the bone, it was a big deal but I got over it anyway.

“I must have learned something from it. Maybe I grew up a bit faster from it or it’s helped me to deal with injuries better now. Thankfully it doesn’t bother me now and I never think about it when I’m getting up on a horse.”

On just her fourth ride back, she remarkably rode the winner of the fiercely competitive Connacht Hotel Handicap at the Galway Festival aboard Great White Shark.

In a slowly-run race, she made a crucial call to come wide, having to run further than her rivals, but avoiding the pit of hustle and bustle that developed in the 23-runner field. It was an inspired effort in defiance of both her lack of experience and of any mental scars that might have been evident after her serious injury.

It wasn’t lost on Willie Mullins either. After the race, he summarised it perfectly when he said: “Some guys wait all their life to ride the winner of this race but Jody went round there like an old hand.”

In the same interview, the trainer interestingly told of how he’d been encouraging Townend to think about switching to ride on the flat. He wasn’t the only one to say it to her.

“I actually did the course to get my flat licence,” she says. “It was Willie’s idea and who am I to question Willie Mullins? But then we just decided it was a bad idea. Growing up I never had much of an interest in flat racing. We always had point-to-pointers and I suppose I was always happy enough doing what I was doing and I’ve got plenty of success out of it.

“After deciding not to go ahead on the flat, Willie said he has plenty of good horses for me to ride so I just decided I was happy with that and why change it? I love the position I have now.”

That determination is loud and clear, and many might wonder if she was or is ever tempted to have a go at riding as a professional.

“Yeah, but I think the position I have now, I’m riding good horses. It would be different if I wasn’t in the position I’m in. It would just be hard to walk away from that position now by turning professional, especially when the standard is so high in Willie’s with the quality of riders here.”

Content

Settled and content, Townend is in a good position for further success. Since that big win at Galway, she has stayed largely injury free and secured big-race success through Grangee in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival and on Adamantly Chosen in the Land Rover Bumper.

She still keeps showjumpers at home and will jump them regionally this summer, with the hope of selling them on at some stage, while she also has a few small shares with some of her father’s point-to-point horses. In fact her only distraction from horses at all is her dog Beanie.

Back on the track she’d love to win a Grade 1 and went well in the Champion Bumper when finishing sixth on Captain Cody this year, but at the same time, she doesn’t let the big races define her season.

The main target is to keep improving.

“It has been a brilliant season for me, mighty,” she says. “It was brilliant to win the lady amateur title again and it’s about keeping my hands on it now.

“Nina won that title eight years in a row so I guess I’ll have to ride for another six years at least now before I can retire!”