Townend gets a taste for Aintree fever By Marcus Armytage
Jockey buzzing after his thrilling Topham victory Tizzard believes he has found new star chaser
It is less than a month since Paul Townend won the Gold Cup on Al Boum Photo, but it would be no surprise if he got an even bigger buzz when Cadmium, an 8-1 shot, led from pillar to post over the National fences to win the Randox Health Topham Chase yesterday.
Size, as Tiger Roll has proved, is not as important as heart around Aintree and Cadmium is not the world’s biggest, but has a fair engine and it ran with its choke full out for the entire 2¾ miles.
Indeed, those in behind him must have been sure he would come back to them, but he never did and galloped all the way to the line to beat the staying-on Sub Lieutenant and Rachael Blackmore by six lengths.
When one of his colleagues called to Townend “that was some gallop”, the winning jockey replied that he thought he had “only been hacking”.
“He enjoyed that and I enjoyed it myself,” said the jockey, who is clear in the Irish jockeys championship. “He had the class to get the position I wanted and he winged from fence to fence and took breathers when he needed them. He was measured but attacking at the same time.
“You get a different buzz out there to any other race. It has whet my appetite for Pleasant Company in the National.”
In contrast to Townend, Colin Tizzard, who runs Ultragold in the National today, had a more forgettable Cheltenham and had endured a lean March by his standards. But his yard roared back to form when Lostintranslation, stepping up to three miles for the first time, beat Topofthegame, the RSA winner, by six lengths in the Betway Mildmay Novice Chase.
The runner-up, who looked flat and never really travelled at any stage, rallied to pass Top Ville Ben up the run-in but Lostintranslation was racing comfortably all the way and won without jockey Robbie Power raising a sweat.
It is Tizzard’s perpetual nightmare that he will never be able to replace the likes of Cue Card, Native River and Thistlecrack. “You always think ‘Where am I going to find another?’” he said, “but I think we’ve seen him here.”
Min, at his favoured 2½ miles, put up a career-best performance to win the JLT Chase for Willie Mullins, Ruby Walsh and Rich Ricci.
Having sulked at Cheltenham when hold-up tactics were applied in the Champion Chase, he thoroughly enjoyed being able to dominate again here and while Walsh hung on to Kemboy at his fences on Thursday, he was able to attack them here on Min as the horse grew in confidence through the race.
“If he gets a few furlongs further it might put him in the King George picture,” said Mullins.
Barry Geraghty’s broken leg would have immediately started throbbing a little bit more after his intended mount, Champ, won the Doom Bar Sefton Hurdle over three miles.
Winning replacement Mark Walsh, owner JP Mcmanus’s No2 jockey, was in his suit leaving for the car park when he got the call-up to replace Geraghty.