Chief Gunning For Cleeve Honours

Jimmy Moffatt will give leading conditional Brian Hughes just about the highest-profile ride of his career aboard stable star Chief Dan George in the Byrne Group Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham tomorrow.

The eight-year-old won five times last term, collecting Grade Two novice hurdles prior to defeating last year's Festival winner Wichita Lineman in a Grade One contest at Aintree in April.

He is among a field of 10 for the three-mile test that includes last year's winner Blazing Bailey, dual World Hurdle victor Inglis Drever and the in-form Lough Derg.

'Brian has ridden him a lot at home and rides for me all the time,' said Moffatt.

'He has done a lot of schooling with him so we want to give him his chance. He deserves it because he is a model professional.

'People like John Wade, Alan Swinbank and myself are supporting him in the hope that we can have a northern champion conditional this year.'

Moffatt believes there are mitigating factors for Chief Dan George's failure to show his form in two outings this term, in the Long Distance and Long Walk Hurdles.

The trainer added: 'The horse excelled last season and although he has disappointed a bit, I think he definitely needed the run at Newbury and the ground was too quick for him at Ascot.

'To be fair, there are only a certain amount of races he can run in, but I probably would not run him on that quick ground again in top company.

'He is a horse that takes a race or two to come up to his grade and he went for two racecourse gallops before Newbury.

'Last year he was running in tin-pot novice hurdles at the start so it was not too noticeable. He won his first race at Hexham and you can win at Hexham halfway there with a horse of his ability.

'He is out of novice company and is playing with the big boys now so it is a fair step up. We have done everything right with the horse, the ground is soft and I am sure he will now start to show his true form.

'On his Aintree run he is up there with the best but I think they went too quickly that day. Our horse is a soft ground horse and although it was good that day, they turned it into a stayers' race, which played to his strengths.

'His true form for me was at Haydock last year when he defeated Itsa Legend by 15 lengths.'

Irish trainer Tom Hogan is hoping Sonnyanjoe can show he is good enough to merit a crack at the Ladbrokes World Hurdle in March.

'He's extremely well and he's a very genuine horse, but this is more of a test. He's rated 157 in England so we'll find out if we can play in this game,' said Hogan.

'It's a rehearsal for the World Hurdle ? they're all here.

'He won in Thurles off a mark of 102 last February and he's now rated 157. That's quite an improvement for a 10-year-old.

'The handicapper told me the last horse to do anything like that was Rooster Booster, so I hope he's right.

'He's as tough as old boots, he's gutsy and he likes racing. There's too big a gap to wait for the Festival and he needs to run.

'We'd be hopeful of finishing in the first four.'

Richard Johnson is looking forward to partnering Inglis Drever for the first time.

'He's a great spare ride to pick up if he runs as well as he always does,' said Johnson.

'I've not sat on him before, but as everyone knows, he's very consistent.

'He's a fantastic stayer, one of the best we've seen for a long time,' he told Racing UK.

(C) PA Sport