'His price was completely crackers' - Beautiful Crown justifies support into 9-4 favourite from 20-1 on stable debut

Beautiful Crown justified support from an opening 20-1 with bet365 into 9-4 favourite when landing division two of the mile handicap on his stable debut for Jack Jones.

The Colin Westley-owned six-year-old had dropped 14lb since his last win for Brett Johnson in 2021 and took advantage of his reduced mark on his first start in eight months with a length-and-a-half success under Dylan Hogan.

Beautiful Crown sealed a double for Hogan, who won the 1m4f handicap on the Sean Woods-trained Nancy P.

Jones, who has 28 horses in training at his Newmarket base, said: “His price was completely crackers – there were too many question marks over him and he has a tendency to be slowly away – but it’s really satisfying to get him back on song.

“He’s the first horse Colin has sent me and his trust in the horse has been vindicated. He’s been a bit of a project for us and my team has done a great job. He's entered at Bath on Saturday but we’ll see how he is, what the ground is like and what the handicapper is likely to do.

“We’ve done well with several older horses who have joined us and hopefully it’s a good advert for us.”

The first division of the mile handicap went to the Saffie Osborne-ridden Delta Legend on his first start for Gay Kelleway, with the rider also successful on the Matt Crawley-trained Local Music in the 7f handicap.

Course ace

Stan Moore’s Raintown took his course record to 4-5 when landing the feature 1m4f handicap by five lengths under Josephine Gordon.

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