Richard Fahey reports Red Lancer to be in fine fettle ahead of his bid in Saturday's £85,000 Old Newton Cup at Haydock Park.
The five-year-old has not won since lifting the Chester Vase in 2004, but signalled a return to form is on the horizon when only beaten two lengths in fifth in the competitive Rose Bowl handicap at Epsom last month.
Fahey is mindful of the open-nature of the contest, but is looking forward to saddling Red Lancer and has his fingers crossed that the forecast rains arrive at the Merseyside venue.
'Red Lancer is in really good form, it's always a very tough race but we're very happy with him and we'll see how he gets on,' he said.
'He's just had the two runs for us and he's slipped down the weights a touch - if we could get him back right he could be well handicapped, but we'll have to wait and see what happens on Saturday. There is a lot of rain forecast over there and I think the more rain we get the better it would be for him really,' he explained.
