YOU don’t need to mark Verbal Dexterity up a jot in order to conclude that Jim Bolger’s colt put up a sparkling performance in winning the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.

It looked like Beckford was travelling better when he and Pat Smullen joined the leader at the two-furlong pole, but Verbal Dexterity picked up again when Kevin Manning asked him to, and he stayed on strongly all the way to the line.