Moffatt Respects Chief

Jimmy Moffatt believes stable star Chief Dan George is good enough to bid for top staying hurdle honours this season.

The seven-year-old, winner of the Sefton Novices' Hurdle at Aintree in the spring, is set to reappear in the VC Casino.com Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury on December 1, with the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham the long-term objective.

'The first target this season will be the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury on Hennessy day,' said the Cartmel trainer.

'Ultimately it will be the World Hurdle. We think we've got a horse good enough to go there, so Cheltenham is the plan.

'I know he won the Grade One novice at Aintree on good ground, but he's a better horse on soft ground. Taking on those top horses you need everything your own way.

'Alan Dempsey did a lot of work with the horse, winning two Grade Twos, but then he got badly injured at Newcastle and obviously our thoughts go out to him.

'Mick Fitzgerald won the Grade One on him and he's told me he will be able to ride the horse this season, so that's great. Hopefully the partnership will stay intact.'

Moffatt believes Chief Dan George merits more respect than the major bookmakers are currently paying him in their ante-post lists.

'Our horse is a big price at 25-1 (for the World Hurdle), especially if it's soft ground at Cheltenham. I wouldn't be afraid of anything,' he told At The Races.

'Inglis Drever has won two World Hurdles. He's a great horse and just to be mentioned in the same breath as him is fantastic.

'But you can't be frightened of one or two. You've got to have a go and we think this horse is good enough.

'I worked him on Wednesday against a miler and he beat that. He's no mug.

'He'll go to Newbury, then to Ascot for the Long Walk. Then in an ideal world it would be the Cleeve Hurdle, the Rendlesham at Haydock and then the World Hurdle.'

(C) PA Sport