Golden Ace came through a racecourse gallop with flying colours ahead of her Unibet Champion Hurdle defence at Cheltenham in 11 days' time.
The Jeremy Scott-trained mare memorably came through to pick up the pieces and land the Festival's day-one feature at odds of 25/1 following falls for Constitution Hill and State Man last March.
Scott feels this year's Champion has a competitive feel to it but reports his big hope to be in even better shape going into the race compared to 12 months ago.
He saw the eight-year-old come through a racecourse spin at Wincanton on Thursday and reported: "They picked up coming up the home straight and she was tanking the whole way.
"I couldn't have been happier really. She won't do a lot now, that was a good piece of work. We didn't necessarily need to put much more work into her but mentally I think it's done her a lot of good.
"We'll just have her on tick-over next week, we might have one sharp piece that she does and then I think hopefully we'll be all ready to go."
With State Man on the injury list and connections of Constitution Hill opting against a return to jumping following three falls in his last three starts, the title-holder Golden Ace is a best-priced 13/2 to win back-to-back Champion Hurdles on March 10.
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