Henrietta Knight admits she did not envisage running her new stable star Calgary Bay in the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy at the start of the season.

Always held in high regard by his astute handler, the imposing six-year-old has won only one of his three starts over fences thus far.

However, he went into a great many punters' notebooks with an absolutely scintillating display of jumping to win the Grade Two Dipper Novices' Chase at Cheltenham on New Year's Day.

A defeat at Ascot last time was put down to his dislike of right-handed tracks.

"He jumps well, but everybody is going to need a lot of luck because there is such a big field for an Arkle," said Knight.

"We know he's much better going left-handed so it wasn't a major shock to us that he was beaten at Ascot the last day and we have freshened him up since then.

"We had a rather slow start to the season because he had fallen over on the road and cut his knees open so we had to wait and see what happened when he returned to racing.

"But I certainly didn't have the Arkle in mind when we started chasing him.

"We're quite happy with the ground as it is but even if the rain came, that wouldn't really bother him."

Owner Andy Stewart has hinted that ante-post favourite Tatenen, trained by Paul Nicholls, could bid to make all the running.

He said: "I know he got beaten in Ireland last time but I do think he has a favourite's chance.

"Having looked at the race in Ireland, there was nothing wrong with what happened that day.

"But we are looking to be bowling along there, well up with the pace at the top of the hill and say 'catch us if you can'."