diff --git a/lib/ocaml/baseline/manacher.ml b/lib/ocaml/baseline/manacher.ml
index c80a250a..02bb99b3 100644
--- a/lib/ocaml/baseline/manacher.ml
+++ b/lib/ocaml/baseline/manacher.ml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ let manacher s =
     if i < !right then begin
       let v = !right - i in
       let pm = p.(mirror) in
-      p.(i) <- (if pm < v then pm else v)
+      p.(i) <- if pm < v then pm else v
     end;
     while i + p.(i) + 1 < m && i - p.(i) - 1 >= 0
           && t.(i + p.(i) + 1) = t.(i - p.(i) - 1) do
diff --git a/lib/ocaml/parser.sx b/lib/ocaml/parser.sx
index 92773071..941507ea 100644
--- a/lib/ocaml/parser.sx
+++ b/lib/ocaml/parser.sx
@@ -741,16 +741,28 @@
                       (else
                         (begin
                           (advance-tok!)
-                          (let
-                            ((rhs (parse-prefix))
-                              (next-min
-                                (if
-                                  (ocaml-binop-right? op)
-                                  prec
-                                  (+ prec 1))))
-                            (begin
-                              (set! rhs (parse-binop-rhs rhs next-min))
-                              (parse-binop-rhs (list :op op lhs rhs) min-prec))))))))))))
+                          ;; For `<-` and `:=`, the rhs is at expression
+                          ;; level — accept `if/match/let/fun/...` keywords
+                          ;; on the right (real OCaml does). Otherwise,
+                          ;; fall back to the standard prefix-then-binop
+                          ;; chain.
+                          (cond
+                            ((or (= op "<-") (= op ":="))
+                              (let ((rhs (parse-expr-no-seq)))
+                                (parse-binop-rhs
+                                  (list :op op lhs rhs) min-prec)))
+                            (else
+                              (let
+                                ((rhs (parse-prefix))
+                                  (next-min
+                                    (if
+                                      (ocaml-binop-right? op)
+                                      prec
+                                      (+ prec 1))))
+                                (begin
+                                  (set! rhs (parse-binop-rhs rhs next-min))
+                                  (parse-binop-rhs
+                                    (list :op op lhs rhs) min-prec))))))))))))))
         (define
           parse-binary
           (fn
diff --git a/plans/ocaml-on-sx.md b/plans/ocaml-on-sx.md
index e24a59e0..19410721 100644
--- a/plans/ocaml-on-sx.md
+++ b/plans/ocaml-on-sx.md
@@ -407,16 +407,22 @@ _Newest first._
   binary search tree (`type 'a tree = Leaf | Node of 'a * 'a tree *
   'a tree`) with insert + in-order traversal. Tests parametric ADT,
   recursive match, List.append, List.fold_left.
+- 2026-05-10 Phase 5.1 — parser: accept `if/match/let/fun/...` as
+  the rhs of `<-` and `:=`. parse-binop-rhs now special-cases prec-1
+  ops (`<-`, `:=`) to call parse-expr-no-seq for their right operand
+  instead of parse-prefix. Real OCaml accepts `a.(i) <- if c then x
+  else y`, `r := match e with | A -> 1 | B -> 2`, etc. Manacher
+  baseline (iter 235) updated to use bare `if` on rhs of `<-`,
+  matching the workaround note left in its previous Progress entry.
+  607/607 regressions clean. Useful improvement for hot inner-loop
+  code that needs conditional rhs.
 - 2026-05-10 Phase 5.1 — manacher.ml baseline (Manacher's longest
   palindromic substring on "babadaba" = 7). Inserts `#` separators
   to unify odd/even cases (string of length 2n+1), then maintains
   palindrome radii in `p[]` plus a current rightmost-reach pair
   (center, right). Linear time. The full input "babadaba" itself is
   not a palindrome, but "abadaba" (positions 1..7) is — length 7.
-  Note: `p.(i) <- if pm < v then pm else v` requires explicit
-  parens — our parser doesn't accept `if` as the rhs of `<-` at
-  binop level (real OCaml does); workaround until we relax binop
-  RHS parsing. 149 baseline programs total.
+  149 baseline programs total.
 - 2026-05-10 Phase 5.1 — floyd_warshall.ml baseline (all-pairs
   shortest path on 4-node weighted graph, dist 0→3 = 9). Standard
   O(n³) DP: for each intermediate vertex k, relax all (i,j) pairs.