BARON WINDRUSH (2.55) has ticks in all of the right boxes for this afternoon's £110,000 Midlands Grand National, writes Colin Woods (Janus).

When faced with a stamina test in excess of four miles, priority number one is sheer staying power, a quality exuded by Baron Windrush when he finished a close-up fourth over a similar distance in Newcastle's Eider Chase.

There's also the not-so-small matter of 24 fences which need to be jumped, but neither should we worry on that particular front because, generally speaking, he's extremely clever and economical at his obstacles.

The final piece of the jigsaw revolves around the jockey booking, another area of little concern since Carl Llewellyn, twice successful in the Aintree Grand National, can be relied upon to judge the pace to perfection.

In terms of an overview of past form, Baron Windrush brings to the party one totally outstanding performance. The venue was Warwick in mid-January 2005, where he came from a mile back to nail D'Argent in the dying strides.

Until suffering an injury, D'Argent wasn't far off being a live outsider for the Gold Cup, while the fourth home in that long distance contest, Kelami, went on to collect at the 2005 Cheltenham Festival.

From a pundits' point of view, some bits of form can be a tad iffy, but there's only one way to interpret such an outstanding effort, and that is straight out of the top drawer.

It would be lovely to tip with confidence our own local hero, Redworth-near-Darlington trained Ossmoses, but having been upped a over a stone for his Red Square Vodka Gold Cup win, Don Forster's grey probably has his back to the wall.

Get more racing online at www.racing-north.co.uk.