Mr Vango powers to Peter Marsh victory at Haydock

Mr Vango made every yard of the running to lift the Sky Bet Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock.

Trained by Sara Bradstock and ridden by Jack Tudor, Mr Vango was last seen winning the three-and-a-half-mile London National at Sandown last month and with his stamina assured, connections were eager to make it a real test.

Bill Baxter was an early casualty when unshipping his rider on the first circuit and Royale Pagaille, who was bidding for a third win in the race under a top weight of 12st, made a couple of notable mistakes that put paid to his chances and saw jockey Charlie Deutsch pull him up at the top of the home straight.

While others wilted under the testing conditions, Mr Vango and former Welsh National winner Iwilldoit thrived over the extended three miles and one furlong on soft ground, battling it out over the final two fences.

However, Mr Vango pulled ahead before the final obstacle and maintained his gallop to the line, registering a three-length victory at 4-1, with Iwilldoit just holding off the determined late spurt of Richmond Lake to take second.

Bradstock said: “He’s such a fantastic horse. He can’t go any faster but he keeps going.

“He wasn’t quite over Sandown by the time of the Welsh National so we missed it. He’s an absolute giant so you don’t want to take him racing if he’s not spot on.

“We’re praying for the wettest spring ever so we can run him in the National, but I’d only run him on heavy ground – Red Marauder style – as he wouldn’t be able to lay up with them on anything quicker. That’s the dream.

“He just copes with those bad conditions, probably because he’s so big.”

She went on: “He’s a horse who was really helped by covid. He didn’t run at four because he was too big but he probably would have gone pointing at five but there wasn’t any, so he had all that time.

“Somebody wanted to run a competition once to see how big he is, but I said we couldn’t as I genuinely have never been able to find a stick big enough to measure him! He must be over 18 hands, he’s definitely the biggest racehorse I’ve ever seen.

“It’s only his sixth run over fences but he will only ever run when it is soft enough.

“If it’s heavy at Uttoxeter for the Midlands National, and it doesn’t look like being soft enough at Aintree, we’d run where it’s going to be soft enough for him.”

Bradstock took over the training of Mr Vango following the death of her husband, the Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning handler Mark, in March last year.

She added: “That’s my first runner here in my own name, Mark is obviously looking down on us. He wanted us to carry on and we’re loving it.”