Lord Transcend clears the ditch.

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Lord Transcend made amends for a crashing fall at Wetherby over Christmas with an impressive victory in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock Park on Saturday.

Howard Johnson's grey went off a hot favourite for the Rowland Meyrick Chase at the West Yorkshire track but he crashed out at the eleventh fence.

However, he made no mistake this time with a bold-jumping display on very testing ground.

Graham Lee soon had the eight-year-old in front, chased by Francois Doumen's First Gold with the rest of the field close up.

Going down the far side for the final time the two leaders began to draw away from the pack and it soon became clear that Lord Transcend (9-4 favourite) was going the better.

Apart from a mistake six out, he was never really in any danger and stormed home by 10 lengths from First Gold with another six back to Take The Stand.

"He was very buzzy and sweating at Wetherby. But he had two handlers here and he travelled great down the road. When I saw him in the paddock I thought 'today is the day'," said Johnson.

"He's a relentless galloper and he loves this ground - that's the secret. It takes a good horse to jump as well as that.

"He ran a good race in the Hennessy (fourth) at Newbury and I pushed him for Newbury because this horse had a leg - he's been fired.

"I'm not worried if he doesn't run again this season. This horse will not go to Cheltenham and he'd be too young for the National."

Lord Transcend was the horse responsible for getting the highly-successful partnership of Johnson and his big-spending patron, Graham Wylie, started.

"This horse got me going with Graham. He's ended up with 82 horses at the yard now and that's through Lord Transcend. This was the first horse he ever bought.

"He's a very good man, a very good owner and we get on well together," Johnson added. "Graham got the bug through this horse."

Doumen was delighted with First Gold's effort.

He said: "That was brilliant - I'm very happy. He can't give over a stone to a very decent horse."