Townend the fall guy in Hurricane call

SPARE a thought for Paul Townend. The young man from Cork fashioned a spectacularly successful partnership with Hurricane Fly over the winter, stockpiling Grade One races with a greedy abandon back home in Ireland.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been impossible to dislodge but Ruby Walsh is no ‘normal’ jockey. So it was that Townend was left trailing in the seven-year old’s wake yesterday on board Thousand Stars after Walsh’s successful recuperation from a broken leg over the winter and last week’s crashing fall at Naas.

Walsh claims he was in the dark about the riding plans for Hurricane Fly plans as late as two weeks ago but, realistically, there was never any doubt but that Willie Mullins would choose to seat his best jockey on his best hope for the Champion Hurdle.