Captain Cee Bee and Dave's Dream close to chase debuts.

Byline: Dave Keena

CAPTAIN CEE BEE and Dave's Dream, two of the most interesting recruits to chasing this season, are set to make their debuts over fences next week.

Captain Cee Bee, winner of the 2008 Supreme Novices' Hurdle but absent from the track since April that year, could return at Naas a week tomorrow.

Eddie Harty, who trains the eightyear-old for JP McManus, said yesterday: "We have been waiting for a bit of nice ground for him. The forecast is bad for this week and I can't see the ground drying out, but we'd like to get him started over fences.

"We were going to enter him for Navan on Sunday, but we'll give that a miss and we'll more than likely go to Naas on Wednesday week for a beginners' chase. Hopefully the weather will improve a bit between now and then. Ground conditions still won't be ideal but he's in good form and has schooled well."

Captain Cee Bee is a general 20-1 chance for the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy, a race for which Dave's Dream is a top-priced 33-1 with Bet365 and Stan James.

Regarded as one of Nicky Henderson's top prospects for novice chases this winter, Dave's Dream has an entry at Huntingdon on Thursday in the 2m novice chase, but is likely to miss that engagement.

"The plan is to start off at Kempton on Monday," said Henderson.

Dave's Dream has won four of his seven starts. After recording a sevenlength win in Sandown's Imperial Cup in March, he finished sixth in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, where he was in pursuit of the valuable bonus offered to the winner of both races.

CAPTION(S):

Captain Cee Bee (top) and Dave's Dream are hot recruits to chasing