I N any other sport he'd probably consider himself top dog, regularly executing the equivalent of the flying dismount, flashing his rivals a cheeky grin as he swoops by them on the run for home. He'd have a trophy girlfriend and already grown weary of indulging the rent-a-quotes in the press. There'd be celebrity television deals to consider, property deals to mull over, more cash than any young man could ever hope to spend.

Paul Townend has none of these things. It is a brisk December day in Punchestown. Racing is only half-way through but he's already in his civvies, ready for the road home, a winner to his name, every bone and internal organ in decent working order. In the morning, he'll be back in the yard, a mucky stable to clean out and horses to canter around the gallop. No matter how high he climbs, the daily grind will never change.

He's just turned 18 and already the glimmer of a fruitful career is apparent. Persian City on Tuesday was his 14th winner over jumps this season, his 34th when you include the Flat, and the 43rd of his nascent career. It came, like most of his victories, after an impressively polished ride, the legacy of a childhood watching Paul Carberry, and a power-packed finish that belies a spindly frame still light enough for the Flat.

Though Willie Mullins has provided more than half his winners over jumps this season and he rides out at Mullins' Closutton stables six mornings a week, there's no binding arrangement between them. Townend likes it that way. He's regularly riding good horses and banking winners and it is more than enough. At the start of the year, he could never have imagined such largesse. Like a talented young jumper, he landed running.

"There's nothing official," he says. "It's always up to Willie. He'd never say anything to me about riding a horse. If he puts me down on it, he puts me down on it. It's better that way, puts less pressure on you. That's the way Willie does things. It was the same with Davy Condon before me. He was never second jockey either even though he'd ride a lot of the second horses."

A part of him wakes up every morning wondering if it will be the day things start catching up on him. Racing, after all, teaches you perspective long before it garlands you with material rewards. He can pinpoint the day when his fortunes rocketed: a double he rode for

Mullins at Punchestown in the middle of last month. On the same day, Ruby Walsh ruptured his spleen after another crashing fall at Cheltenham and, as hard as it is to say, the champion jockey's misfortune was his first clear opportunity.

Five days later, Mullins saddled Cooldine in a beginners' chase at Thurles and, to the jockey's surprise, entrusted Townend with the job. The six-year-old was a Grade One winner over hurdles but had always been regarded in the yard as a top-class chaser in the making. Mullins could have called on a weigh-room full of more experienced riders for the task but kept faith with Townend and that faith, patently, was rewarded with another slick victory.

Another taste of the big-time came earlier this month when he rode Hurricane Fly to win the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse, his first ever ride in a Grade One race. This time he was less surprised. He rides Hurricane Fly every morning at home and, in Mullins' busy yard, there's no other horse he knows better. Although Cousin Vinny, the Cheltenham and Punchestown Bumper winner, was also in the field, the stable confidence was behind Hurricane Fly, yet the expectation didn't faze him.

"It takes a lot of the pressure off when you know a horse inside out. Like, if you walk out to the parade ring and you see a horse for the first time and it's dancing around the parade ring, you're thinking 'What's this yoke?' Hurricane Fly can take a fair hold. They went fairly steady at Fairyhouse but thankfully he was still okay. Everything has to go right to win big races like those. On another day, they could go a good gallop and he'd still run free or the gaps mightn't come. Things have to fall right."

So far they mostly have. He went to Mullins for the first time in the summer of last year, kind of tagging along with Condon, who happens to be his first cousin. At the time, he was a champion pony racer with the talent and hunger to progress to bigger things. Transition year awaited him in school in Midleton CBS but he didn't fancy it. "I never went back," he says. "You make no money at school."

From blue-chip racing stock, leaving school was no bind. The game subsumes his family on both sides. His uncle, Bob Townend, was a respected jockey in the 1970s and 1980s while his father owns and trains point-to-pointers. Both of his grandfathers trained too. "It's in the blood. I only wanted to be a jockey. They were my heroes when I was growing up: my Spiderman and Superman. I'd be disowned if I wasn't in racing."

Mullins took him on as a Flat jockey initially but, even at the beginning, it was apparent his future lay in the jumping sphere. Until he can he is determined to combine both though it was tough last week when the Flat season concluded and the jockeys spoke of their plans to head for the warmth of Dubai or southern Spain. He winced but thought of the good jump horses that would sustain him over the winter and, deep down, he knows where he'd rather be.

He's attuned to the madness of the sport now and the addiction to speed it nurtures. Two months ago, he bought a new car and gasped this week when he noticed he'd already put 15,000km on the counter. Earlier this year, he travelled to Market Rasen to ride a horse trained by Mullins' sister, Sandra McCarthy. Walsh was riding that day too and offered the young rider a lift and a quiet lesson on what riding at the top entailed.

"I was absolutely wrecked that day. We get to the airport and he's running around all over the place. Then into the plane, a quick sleep and he runs out the other side again. He rides the races and straight back to the airport again. No break at all. It's mad. But he enjoys it and who in the world wouldn't want to do it? To go over and ride those nice horses?"

Walsh generally gives two mornings of his week at Mullins' and Townend loves to study the dynamic between them, how relaxed and serious they sound, the business of a top yard ticking over with no sense of panic or disarray. He supposes that one day he'll face the decision, like Condon and David Casey before him, to stay with Mullins or decamp to another yard in Ireland or beyond. For now, he can't imagine a yard which would grant him a better finishing school.

"There's no one better to learn off than Ruby. He'd say stuff to you without giving out. He'd give you a few tips here and there. You'd always be watching him to see what he's doing on this horse or that horse. If there's a difficult horse in the yard, you'd see what he does on him and try to copy him.

"With Willie, if you do something wrong he'll say it to you and the next thing it's all grand again. He will say it to you: 'You should have done this or you should have done that'. You have to learn from those things. If you make a mistake, it's up to you to get over it and do your best to get it right the next time."

As Christmas approaches, the racing pulse quickens but Townend can't look too far ahead. Walsh returned safely to action at Cheltenham on Friday and shows no signs of losing his appetite for riding the pick of the horses between Mullins and Paul Nicholls. A chance might arise on Cooldine at Leopardstown on St Stephen's Day when Walsh will be in Kempton to ride Kauto Star in the King George. But the decision is Mullins' and Townend wouldn't dare try to second guess the trainer.

Everything he gets is a bonus now. Even the crumbs from Walsh's table can comprise a tasty meal. He knows too that riding good horses from Mullins gets him noticed among other trainers and he notices a lot more activity with his agent Ciaran O'Toole these days. "Barely a day's racing goes by now when I wouldn't be riding," he says. "That's mighty really. This time last year I wouldn't have expected that."

He's living the life. When he's mucking out stables at Mullins' and helping out around the yard, he sees other guys doing the same work who never get to go to the races and, even though they are treated well by the trainer, he knows he could never stomach the grind of it without the reward of the racetrack and the buzz of riding winners. He's thinking now of buying a house and wonders if he isn't getting ahead of himself.

"You try not to," he says, "but you can't say you don't think about the future. Because obviously you want to ride winners at Cheltenham, be a champion, ride in the Gold Cup and all those things. But you have to take it as it comes. You can only ride the horses you're given and do your best on them. The worst thing would be to put too much pressure on yourself."

When the biggest days come he'll half know what to expect. He remembers when Condon travelled to Australia to ride Mullins' highly-strung gelding Holy Orders in the Melbourne Cup and to a dreamy 13-year-old rider how exotic and inspiring the journey seemed. Condon was just like he is now, a young apprentice at Mullins', teetering between a career on the flat and over jumps, enjoying five good years there before deciding to try his luck with Nicky Richards in the north of England.

He knows that the time might come when he himself has a similar choice to make but, for now, he sees only blue skies and the blessed gift of opportunity. "Ruby can't ride them all you know," he says smiling, happy with the knowledge that good things assuredly come to those who wait.