Dao Dao will be on trial for a return to Hong Kong for the Champions Mile when he runs in Saturday's Futurity Stakes at Caulfield.The Shinko Forest six-year-old goes into the Group One weight-for-age 1600m feature after an encouraging long head second to Rangirangdoo in the Group Two Expressway Stakes (1200m) on a heavy track at Rosehill on February 6.Making the run even better was the fact jockey Rod Quinn dropped the whip on Dao Dao inside the last 50m when it was knocked from his grasp by the
Dao Dao will be on trial for a return to Hong Kong for the Champions Mile when he runs in Saturday's Futurity Stakes at Caulfield.
The Shinko Forest six-year-old goes into the Group One weight-for-age 1600m feature after an encouraging long head second to Rangirangdoo in the Group Two Expressway Stakes (1200m) on a heavy track at Rosehill on February 6.
Making the run even better was the fact jockey Rod Quinn dropped the whip on Dao Dao inside the last 50m when it was knocked from his grasp by the whip of Chris Munce, the rider of the third-placed McClintock.
Co-trainers John Hawkes and his sons Michael and Wayne also trialled the gelding before and after that race over 900m at Rosehill to have him ready for his second-up assignment.
The Futurity is the first leg of the Asian Mile Challenge which also includes the Champions Mile at Sha Tin on April 25.
Dao Dao finished eighth to Good Ba Ba in the 2008 Champions Mile and was a close third to Sight Winner in the same event last April.
"He's really good," Wayne Hawkes said.
"We'll run him on Saturday and we'll decide from there."
Asked whether Dao Dao could beat odds-on favourite Typhoon Tracy in the Futurity, Hawkes said: "You'd probably think not but you never know. We'll be trying anyway".
Team Hawkes had been preparing Dao Dao for the Hong Kong International Mile last December but he got sick and had to be spelled.
The lightly-raced galloper has won seven races from 15 starts and has been out of the placings only three times.
Dao Dao began his career in Sydney where he won two of his first three starts and was runner-up to Futurity rival Sniper's Bullet over 1400m in a Rosehill 3YO Class 4 Handicap in December 2006.
He then spent a season campaigning in Hong Kong where he won four races before returning to the Hawkes' stable and claiming the Listed Royal Parma Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill in April last year.
Brett Prebble, Hong Kong's current premiership-leading jockey, returns to Melbourne for the second successive Saturday to ride Dao Dao for the first time.
Following his four-win haul at Sha Tin last Sunday and a double at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, Prebble went to a 16-win lead over Douglas Whyte in his bid to win the premiership there for the first time.
He has been booked to ride Dao Dao in the Champions Mile if the horse makes the trip.
Last-start CF Orr Stakes winner Typhoon Tracy remains $1.60 favourite with TAB Sportsbet to become only the fourth mare to win the Futurity in the past 50 years.
The Peter Moody-trained four-year-old would join Wenona Girl (1963), Mannerism (1992) and Aqua D'Amore (2007).
The John Hawkes-trained three-year-old Yell in 2003 was the last of 12 horses to complete the Orr Stakes-Futurity Stakes double in the same year.
Dao Dao is second pick in the betting at $5 with Sniper's Bullet at $5.50, Joku at $11, Lord Tavistock at $17 and Barbaricus the outsider of the field at $81.