Binocular looks set to take his chance in next Tuesday’s Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, if he satisfies his connections in a workout on Friday.
In a remarkable u-turn, Nicky Henderson looks likely to commit the horse to the Festival showpiece just a week after seemingly ruling him out of the race.
The Grade One-winning superstar had been suffering with a muscle problem but looked more like his old self in a schooling session under champion jockey Tony McCoy on Wednesday and Henderson explained:"He had a hiccup, but he's back now. He's in really good form, AP (McCoy) came down and schooled him yesterday and we think we are three-quarters of the way to getting him back to where we need him to be.
"There's just one more bit of work to do tomorrow when again AP's going to come and ride him. And if he's happy there I think we'll give him the green light.
"He hasn't impressed everybody all season. He won his last start very easily, but even so it wasn't quite the same Binocular we know we can have."
The trainer looks to hold all the aces in the race with stablemates Zaynar and defending champion Punjabi also set to take their chance.
Talking about Zaynar Henderson explained: "I'm very happy with Zaynar. There was that debacle when we went to Kelso (beaten at 1-14) but we had to get runs into these horses.
"We were having to use races we wouldn't normally go for, but the ground was horrible and he got beaten for the first time. That was disappointing but excusable.
"He's back here in good form and he schooled the other day. He's in very good order, at the end of the day you'll find him going further than two miles but at the moment he's a very smart horse."
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