PUNTER POWER

STORM HOME (1.45) has really stepped up to the plate in his last two runs with relatively easy wins at Taunton and Wincanton. He faces a far stiffer task in the opening race at Aintree today but he was a fairly expensive purchase whose early form suggests he could punch his weight at higher levels than this.

MIN (3.25) looked like he was going to give Altior a run for his money in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham. Willie Mullins’s seven-year-old was eventually beaten seven lengths by Altior… but I still think, under jockey Paul Townend (left), he will have too much speed for Henry de Bromhead’s Ryanair Chase winner Balko Des Flos. LALOR (2.20) won the Bumper at this meeting last season and looks a decent each-way shot for the Grade One Betway Top Novices’ Hurdle.