It’s a bit of a leap to expect a horse of his age to end up in the King George. In his heyday, it might have been realistic but he’s nine now.
As previously stated, the next step on the ladder should be a Listed or Group Three race. I nominated the Sagaro, but others have mentioned the Ormonde and that would be a good shout, too.
Fortunately for HDLG, who is panicking about losing all his Champion Hurdle bets on The New Lion, connections certainly gave the impression in their post race interviews that they were at least leaning towards a campaign on the flat rather than reverting to hurdles.