Henrietta Knight and Jim Lewis have ended the speculation as to who will ride Best Mate in the William Hill Chase at Exeter on Friday.
Timmy Murphy and Tony McCoy were both in the frame but the former, who was in terrific form at Cheltenham at the weekend, has got the nod.
"Timmy Murphy will ride him," said Miss Knight today. "We weighted up the pros and cons, obviously Mr Lewis has a lot of loyalty to Tony McCoy, who has ridden winners for him in the past, but we decided that Timmy Murphy's style of riding would suit the horse better."
Connections of the triple Gold Cup winner had been searching for a pilot since regular rider Jim Culloty became unavailable because of a broken thumb.
He will face a maximum of six rivals in the £65,000 contest.
The race had been reopened until 9.15am this morning after attracting fewer than eight entries on Saturday, but no further additions were made to the field.
The chief threat to Miss Knight's star looks to be the Robert Alner-trained Sir Rembrandt, who has half a length to find from the blue riband in March, with the benefit of a run under his belt already this season.
Henry Daly's useful Hand Inn Hand, who has also had a run, Frenchman's Creek, Upgrade, Seebald and One Knight complete the field at the five-day stage.
