So perhaps given his colourful background, it should come as no surprise to see the chestnut gelding scooting up the Towcester hill to
give Northants trainer Alex Hales his first ever winner at the course he calls his 'local' since he switched to train at Preston Capes last July.

Admittedly it was only a humble seller, but the 3/1 chance romped home 21 lengths clear of Tiffin Deano to give Will Kennedy one of the easiest winners he will ever ride.

Hales certainly wasn't complaining as it erased the 'nought' box for Towcester wins from his stables at the 17th attempt, although he missed the victory roll after a fruitless day spent at Doncaster Sales.

He laughed: "Perhaps I can call Towcester my lucky course now. I am chuffed to have a winner there. We bought this horse to go hurdling as although he has plenty of ability he is only 50 or 55 rated on the flat where he has won eight times."

In fact, Bethany's Boy is in his second stint with Hales who lost him in January last year when he was bought for £10,000 out of a Wolverhampton claimer to join Paul Blockley.

However, Hales was able to get him back at half that price out of Michael Wigham's yard in February, after an infamous contest when jockey Nicky Mackay failed to see eventual winner Global Traffic produced up his inside.

Hales remains in good form as What Do You Know earned his fourth win on the flat since Hales moved to Northants, when he won at Newmarket last Friday.

A more regular visitor to the Towcester winner's enclosure is Venetia Williams who sent out Coach Lane (7/1) to land the 2m 3 ½ f handicap hurdle, exploiting a significantly lower hurdling mark after a successful winter over fences on soft ground.

Williams said: "I was terrified of running him on this ground and we were going up in trip as well."

In fact, the large fields paid tribute to the Towcester groundstaff for providing decent going, eight days after a spate of withdrawals on firm.

Red Jester (12/1) kicked off the evening by just holding off Croft in the 2m handicap chase, confirming the return to form of Laura Young's small string in the Quantock Hills.

Her husband James said: "We have just come out of a desperate
season and I was beginning to wonder whether we could win a walkover but we had a second at Fakenham on Sunday and this horse has benefited from being freshened up."

Maiden hurdle scorer Chevy To The Levy (7/4) was one of two winning favourites on the night as Earcomesannie (9/2) made it two winners at Towcester in eight days for trainer Peter Pritchard who had Jack Doyle doing the steering in the 3m handicap chase.

The concluding mares' only handicap hurdle saw 4/1 second favourite Cove Mountain just hold off Macreater whose connections are eyeing a return to the course on one of the final two meetings of the season.

Towcester stages its next fixture a week on Friday (May 30) when the first race is due off at 6.30pm.