New recruit and stable star Milteye will be looking to scale new heights for trainer Harriet Bethell when lining up in Thursday’s £30,000 PricedUp.Bet Grassroots Series Middle Distance Final Handicap at Nottingham.

Bethell is enjoying a strong season, having already surpassed expectations with a career-best season tally of seventeen winners, including a valuable success in the Carlisle Bell with On The River.

"Winning the Carlisle Bell was huge for us earlier in the season as in running I didn't think he was going to find anywhere to go, but thankfully he got his head in front at the right time," she said.

It has not been an easy few years for Bethell, who suffered a serious head injury in a gallops fall in 2019. After nine months in hospital, she was determined to help others on her journey through recovery, raising nearly £60,000 for the Injured Jockeys Fund by walking a circuit of Pontefract Racecourse.

"It is quite upsetting to talk about it, but I took a bad fall at home a couple of Christmases ago that put me in hospital with a little bleed on the brain.

"I've also had a few falls since then which thankfully have not been serious enough to put me into hospital.

"Having spent nine months in hospital I then spent another three or four days in Hull Royal Infirmary and I don't want to spend more time there.

"I'm not walking fully at the moment and that is pretty heartbreaking, especially after raising all that money for the Injured Jockeys' Fund in doing a circuit at Pontefract.

"That was the best day of my life since I had left the hospital after the initial fall as I had so many friends and family come and cheering for me on the day. It was different gravy.

"Pontefract is not an easy track but I've got such fond memories of it as I rode my first winner there as a Flat jockey and it is such a family-friendly track."

Since joining the Yorkshire-based Bethell from Edward O'Grady in April, Milteye has placed in all of his eight runs and has contributed to Bethell's run of stable form.

"It's quite exciting having a runner here. Milteye has been a superstar for us this season as he rarely runs a bad race.

"Every time he has run this season he has been in the first three. He is in super good form, and we are hopeful of a bold show.

"There are some higher rated runners in there which could pose a bit of a problem but if they don't turn up with their A game, we definitely will.

"The owners were quite keen to go back up to a mile and a quarter with him as he ran really well over the same trip the last time he went to Nottingham.

"Although he has been on the go since April, he is really fresh. He almost trains himself up the gallops.

"He is such a sweet little horse that everyone loves him in the yard, and everyone wants to ride him."