Haydock Tips: Red Verdon

Red Verdon managed something few horses achieve and won at Chester from the widest draw (7/7). Held-up in rear and ridden for luck, usually you need a pace collapse but the eventually runner-up led most of the way and set a sensible pace with a finished speed of 103.7%.

Amazingly Red Verdon overcame both a draw and pace disadvantage to win by 1.25 lengths, a seriously good performance. His victory was achieved by a blistering closing sectional that was 0.86s faster than anything else in the race.

Ed Dunlop has a progressive middle-distance horse on his hands and his Chester win suggests he might be Group-class in time. Racing off a mark of 88 he should win the 1.55 Haydock.