Two wins apiece for Hanagan and Hughes
Hanagan firstly scored by the narrowest of margins on Duquesa (16-1) in division two of the Red Box Recorders Simply, Smarter, Voice Nursery.
The filly, trained by David Evans, had failed to trouble the judge in three previous outings but she showed great courage to hold Hernando Torres by a nose.
Hanagan also had to work extremely hard to get Significant Move home first in the Red Box Recorders Quantify Voice Rating Related Maiden Stakes for his 169th success of the Flat campaign.
On The Feather provided persistent opposition but Hanagan got the 2-1 joint-favourite in front by a length and a quarter.
Hughes is fighting Hanagan every inch of the way and he struck on Prophet In A Dream in division one of the nursery.
The 5-2 favourite burst into a clear lead a furlong and a half out and had enough to hold High Class Lady by three-quarters of a length.
At Towcester, talented hurdler Micheal Flips had to make do with minor honours on his debut over fences as the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Have You Seen Me took the gg.com Beginners’ Chase.
The former won the Lanzarote Hurdle and finished fourth in the Coral Cup for Andy Turnell last season, earning him a rating of 147 over timber.
As a result, he was sent off the 10-11 favourite for this two-mile heat and travelled well for much of the contest under Nick Scholfield.
Have You Seen Me (13-2) set a strong gallop throughout, but turning for home it looked as though Micheal Flips would pick him up.
But Tom Molloy’s mount kept finding more and galloped up the hill to score by three-quarters of a length.
An upbeat Scholfield said: “He ran well. We were a bit worried his confidence might be down having fallen on his last run over hurdles at Ayr but he’s jumped a clear round and definitely has a career over fences.”
