"He did it well and will now go for a race for second-season novices at Down Royal on 3 November, and after that he could go for the Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse."Mind you, any feasible Champion Hurdle candidate will now find it difficult to resist the Bula Hurdle at Cheltenham on 9 December. "It's good to get an odds-on shot to win, as I've had a few beaten recently," Meade said. Equally he has yet to betray any of the idiosyncrasies that have complicated the fulfilment of the senior hurdler in his stable, Harchibald.Their trainer, Noel Meade, will keep them apart for now, his priority being to give Iktitaf more experience. Iktitaf did discover the reserves to win the Irish Cesarewitchthis month, but he was all out to win off a friendly rating there and there is certainly nothing dour about him. Coral cut his Champion Hurdle odds to 10-1 from 14-1. Of course, Carberry's unique kinship with his mounts makes it difficult to know what exactly might lurk beneath that speed.

But Iktitaf's hurdling career to date has been characterised by the sort of speed that will surely enable him to hold a position in better company than yesterday, when coasting away from three inferiors on the bridle. True, their relative freshness may have contributed to the way he dealt with Straw Bear at the Punchestown Festival in April, as the runner-up was contesting his third Grade One race in barely a month. Iktitaf missed the Cheltenham Festival last season because of injury, but is already threatening to compound the present Irish hegemony in the Smurfit Champion Hurdle. Spared a jail sentence earlier in the week for setting fire to a newspaper on a plane, the jockey can rest assured that two of his mounts, Iktitaf and Leading Run, will consume plenty of newsprint themselves during the months ahead. Though Paul Carberry may not appreciate the choice of verb, there was no mistaking the way he ignited the jumps season at Punchestown yesterday. Unlike many other bears, pandas do not walk on their hind legs, and only climb trees when threatened..

As they don't eat much meat, despite being carnivores, they do not build up the excess fat needed to hibernate. Giant pandas are bears, though there is much discussion about whether they are actually bears, raccoons, or if they are in fact a separate species. They share a lot of bear characteristics, but do not hibernate in winter. Today there are nearly 3,000 pandas in the wild, with around 180 in captivity. Female pandas come into heat for just three days every year, and 60 per cent of males in captivity are impotent.