Racing: Nicky Henderson feels Binocular's jumping is well up to scratch ahead of Saturday's williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton.
The reigning Champion Hurdle winner confirmed his well-being with a satisfactory schooling session on Thursday, in which he tackled four flights of hurdles.
If Binocular's jumping fluency is a source of excitement at Seven Barrows, the possibility of testing ground represents a minor cause for consternation for his trainer.
Henderson said of his Thursday workout: "It amuses the horse, it amuses the jockey, but it frightens the living daylights out of the trainer.
"It tells us he's in good shape and I suppose I enjoy it when it's over.
"I'm not sure where the pace is going to come from. Overturn made the running in the Galway Hurdle, but otherwise it's a field of hold-up horses.
"The ground is only a worry because he is such a slick and fast jumper and on that ground it won't be so easy to get a length at every flight.
"It's a long way from March and the course won't suit him as well as the others in the race, but we know that.
"Otherwise he appears in really good form," Henderson told the Telegraph.
Binocular finished third behind Go Native and the reopposing Starluck in last season's renewal of the Grade One challenge.