Tax For Max

The most interesting chapter in the story is Punchestown. Tax For Max has won twice there from five visits, making it comfortably the happiest hunting ground on the record. That kind of course form is no coincidence — some horses simply suit certain tracks, and Punchestown clearly brings out something in this one. Paul Townend, one of jump racing's most decorated jockeys, has ridden Tax For Max five times and won twice, a win rate of 40%. That is a remarkable number — winning 2 in every 5 rides together is the kind of partnership you build a plan around. After their Punchestown win, Townend noted the horse was more manageable than expected, that the gallop suited him, and that the win had done the horse's confidence real good after a tough run of competitive races that had not gone his way.

That Punchestown success came in May 2022, and the last win of any kind was at Wexford in June 2023 — now almost three years ago. At Wexford, jockey Kieran Callaghan was straightforward about it: Tax For Max was simply the best horse in the race, and once the jumping clicked, there was nothing complicated about it. Since then, the wins have dried up. The last six races have brought a third-place finish but nothing more, and at the better class of race — Class 3, one step below the top tier — Tax For Max has gone 0 from 4, which suggests the horse is operating at roughly the right level without quite having enough to beat the best in those fields.

Trained by Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies out of their yard in Naunton, Gloucestershire — a team that has sent out 61 winners already this season — Tax For Max is in professional hands. The yard knows how to place a horse, and at nine years old, with form that lights up at Punchestown, the most logical question is simply whether there is one more good day left in the partnership.