Binocular warmed up for a bid to reclaim his Champion Hurdle crown with a surprise appearance at Wincanton on Saturday.
The 2010 Cheltenham title-holder was only handed a place in the Kingwell Hurdle after his Nicky Henderson-trained stablemate Grandouet was forced to miss the race.
But he showed he could yet be a big rival to last year’s Champion winner Hurricane Fly when he easily disposed of Celestial Halo, who had taken the five runners along in his usual pace-making manner.
Try as he might, he had no answer to the finishing kick of Binocular after Tony McCoy asked his mount to win the race at the second-last.
J P McManus’ eight-year-old bounded clear to score by eight lengths from Celestial Halo with Starluck third.
“He was going to work at Newbury last night but when Grandouet got injured we decided to run him here,” McCoy said.
“I wanted him to have a race here. He could have won on the bridle but I actually wanted him to have a blow as well and he quickened away nicely from the last.
“His jumping is always pretty good. I was very happy with him and he showed was in good form.
“Hurricane Fly is going to be very hard to beat at Cheltenham, but I was able to do what I wanted to do on him.’
Henderson said the race presented an opportunity to give Binocular a workout.
“It was never the plan to give him another run, but when Grandouet couldn’t run I said to JP that it made more sense to have a run than go for a racecourse gallop,” he said.
“He’s a class horse, he jumps really well and that was very good to see.”
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