Storm forecast to boost Grand National prospects at Warwick

STORM Control can take charge of the Mccoy Contractors Civil Engineering Classic Chase at Warwick.

Trainer Kerry Lee has Grand National pretensions with her much-improved eight-year-old — and if that plan is to be feasible, he must demonstrate further evidence of his staying potential as he moves up in trip again this weekend.

Storm Control has been a revelation since being asked to race beyond three miles for the first time, with back-to-back Cheltenham wins earning him a rise of 11lb in the handicap.

His progress has been marked by fluent jumping from the front, a running style which should be to his significant advantage over Warwick’s notoriously tricky line of fences in the back straight.

Cheltenham has certainly held on fears, so hopes must be high that he can operate equally well here.

Three previous trips to Warwick have been suspiciously fruitless, with Storm Control failing to finish in handicaps over hurdles and fences and then well-beaten again on his return at the start of this season.

He was in nothing like his current form then, though, and those misadventures are highly likely to be less significant than the market may potentially decide.

Connections will surely not allow the reconnaissance over a new distance to compromise forceful tactics which clearly suit Storm Control so well and have put his rivals out of their comfort zone of late.

There was every indication at Cheltenham last time, in a mesmerising finish, that he will stay further than he already has — because after slowing on the runin, he quickened again in the dying strides once seriously challenged. It is not difficult to envisage a similar performance here, preferably without a late drama.