Tony McCoy was underwhelmed about Binocular despite the reigning Champion Hurdler finishing off his Cheltenham preparations on a winning note at Sandown.It was worth remembering McCoy had been fairly critical of his mount after he had struggled home in last season's Contenders Hurdle before he rose to the occasion when it really mattered just over five weeks later.Binocular had looked in need of a run when beaten by Peddlers Cross on his return at Newbury but claimed the Christmas Hurdle with ea

Tony McCoy was underwhelmed about Binocular despite the reigning Champion Hurdler finishing off his Cheltenham preparations on a winning note at Sandown.

It was worth remembering McCoy had been fairly critical of his mount after he had struggled home in last season's Contenders Hurdle before he rose to the occasion when it really mattered just over five weeks later.

Binocular had looked in need of a run when beaten by Peddlers Cross on his return at Newbury but claimed the Christmas Hurdle with ease and was not expected to be troubled by three rivals rated leagues below him.

After getting a little warm in the preliminaries the 1-10 favourite jumped scrappily at one or two on the back straight.

McCoy was just starting to have to get serious when the front-running Ruthenoise, who is also trained by Nicky Henderson, stumbled through the last and allowed Binocular to cruise clear under an instantly relaxed rider.

"It wasn't impressive, but for whatever reason it was a similar performance to last year," McCoy said.

"I don't think he jumped as well as he can today, but with just three other horses you are being careful in case one falls or something like that.

"He seems in good form, he's progressing and hopefully we will get him there (Cheltenham) the same as last year."

Binocular was eased slightly by a couple of bookmakers but remains the unanimous Champion Hurdle favourite and is 100-30 with sponsors Stan James.

Henderson had been at Ffos Las to see stablemate Oscar Whisky win the Welsh Champion Hurdle.

"These trials are very difficult with four runners, he is quite a lot better than the others and they were not going the pace he likes to go at," Henderson told BBC Radio.

"This is not March, we've got six weeks to Cheltenham. He wasn't overly impressive when he won this race last year and we have six weeks, so I hope we know where we are.

"There's improvement in the locker which is why we wanted to get that run into him today."