Racing: Tony McCoy has issued a positive bulletin on Binocular's chances at Newcastle on Saturday week. The Champion Hurdle winner is again poised to line up in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, a race in which he finished a laboured fifth behind Go Native in 2009.
Nicky Henderson's six-year-old will then follow the same route as last year by taking in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and the Contenders Hurdle at Sandown, before going for gold at Cheltenham in March.
"I can't ever remember thinking before Newcastle last season that he might not be right, but he felt great the other morning," McCoy said. "He is in the same routine and going for the same four races he went for last season, all being well - the Fighting Fifth, Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, Sandown and the Champion Hurdle.
"I was as easy on him as I could be at Newcastle because he did not finish off his race and it was the same at Kempton. But when he did come right, he really did."
Chief danger at Gosforth Park could be the Donald McCain-trained Peddlers Cross, but the 15-times champion is unfazed by the opposition at Newcastle - and in the Champion Hurdle.
He told the Daily Mail: "Peddlers Cross looks a very good horse and Menorah was impressive in Sunday's Greatwood Hurdle. They are all dangers, but would I want to ride another one?
"Binocular's Champion Hurdle performance was as good as I've had from a horse. If we can get another one like that, anything that beats him will have to be a good one."