Nacarat won the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby by four lengths

Slad trainer Tom George hopes Nacarat can challenge Kauto Star after winning the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.

Nacarat came fourth behind Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase at Kempton in 2009 after blundering the last when in second and will run again this year.

"I just hope he keeps on improving, he's got to improve if he's going to go up against Kauto," George told the BBC.

"We were a long way behind Kauto [last year], but without him we'd have been a good winner that day."

George's confidence in Nacarat's potential to improve comes from overcoming problems which made it difficult to train him and get him fit at home.

He works like a good horse, whereas before he worked like a normal horse Tom George on Nacarat

Now after persistence from his team and the horse doing a lot of work in the pool, George feels the public could get to see the best of Nacarat following his Wetherby triumph.

"He's going to improve from it - we have done a lot more work with him this year as we've been able to, because he hasn't been feeling the aches and pains he did in the past - there's obviously a lot more to come from him," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"We had to drive him up to the gallop and things like that because he couldn't trot, whereas now we can do things like that - he works like a good horse, whereas before he worked like a normal horse.

"We can probably improve on last year just having having the horse in the same condition [as at Wetherby]."

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