Somersby is to be aimed by Wantage trainer Henrietta Knight at the sportingbet.com Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday, March 16.

The West Lockinge handler had been in two minds whether to target her stable star at the two-mile contest or the Ryanair Chase over two miles and five furlongs the next day following his short-head second to Master Minded in the Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot.

But she said: “We have decided that his most likely race at Cheltenham will be the Champion Chase on the Wednesday. That is our aim.”

It promises to be an exciting spring for Knight, who is also targeting Calgary Bay at the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree on Saturday, April 10.

The eight-year-old gelding stayed on well to be second to Wishfull Thinking in the Murphy Group Chase over two miles and five furlongs at Cheltenham on Saturday.

And afterwards Knight said: “He is going to the National. They say horses of this distance go well at the four miles, and that is what the owners (Tim and Camilla Radford) want to do.”