Paul Townend: 'We're expected to win every day we go racing - for Cheltenham, it's just that on steroids'
Champion jockey Paul Townend talks to Ireland editor Richard Forristal
We're meandering towards the conclusion of our conflab in the sumptuous confines of the Lyrath Estate Hotel on the outskirts of Kilkenny city when Paul Townend says something irreverent that makes me pause for thought.
The conversation has veered on to his duel with Jack Kennedy for the Irish jockeys' championship. Kennedy has been plagued with injuries so this is the first decent run he has had at it and plenty of neutrals have been willing him over the line.
However, the Willie Mullins-fuelled Townend spectre looms large, ominously bearing down on the pretender as the spring festivals come into sight.
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- 'I don't want to be part of this narrative that Irish trainers are better than us - I think that's rubbish, it drives me nuts'
- 'The grief hits me quite a lot - so many people think I'm really tough but I get terribly upset by things inwardly'
- 'The numbers went in the wrong direction and you're an idiot if you don't think about it - but you back what you're doing'
- 'My wife wants to know why I'm reading the sales catalogue in bed - it's relentless, but you have to be on it all the time'
- 'I know people will say they've heard it all before - but when I see Constitution Hill now, he's suddenly developed quality'