'He's done a lot of work ... and I'm quite happy with him' Danacourt, the most exciting young horse to race in Hong Kong for the entire season, will make his long-awaited return to racing in the $2.3 million Hong Kong-Macau Trophy at Sha Tin next Sunday. Danacourt has won three of his four Hong Kong starts and was unbeaten in two outings in his native New Zealand, making his career record five wins from six starts. To add further lustre to an impressive track record, he defeated Joyful Winner by three lengths at their only clash on November 27, giving the subsequent Group One winner one pound. The John Size-trained gelding was set for the Group One Stewards' Cup after that sparkling win but then contracted a low-grade virus and had a fever. Rather than push on and risk doing long-term damage, Size wisely chose to stop the chestnut's preparation and give nature a chance to ensure he made a full recovery. Danacourt came back into work on February 5 and did his first piece of pace work on February 26. From there, Size has given Danacourt a steady, thorough build-up that included a quiet barrier trial at Sha Tin on April 7 with Douglas Whyte on board. 'He's done a lot of work and that trial brought him on very nicely,' Size said yesterday. 'Hopefully, he can get back to where he was before he had the setback, but at this stage I'm quite happy with him.' Danacourt's place in the Hong Kong team against the Macau horses for the return round of the interport series will be bad news for the visitors, who scored an upset win in the Macau version on March 4. Redwood Falls, winner of that race, will be back to try for a repeat win and thereby emulate the feats of Crown's Gift (2004) and Helene Pillaging (2005), who each won both the Sha Tin and Taipa versions in the same season. Apart from Danacourt, the Hong Kong team looks very strong, headed by Premier Class winner Fokine and the proven Class One performer Wealthy. Throw in last-start winner Good Profit (an unlucky second in Macau), recent Class One winner Oriental Magic, consistent Triumphant Unicorn and New Zealand Group One winner Happee Owner, and Hong Kong will be strongly favoured to repeat the one-two-three result achieved by Helene Pillaging, Goody and My Choice last year. The Macau team will be Warcat and Gem of Unionlucky (trained by Gary Moore), Redwood Falls (K S Cheong), Nittan's Winner (Allen Tam), St Moritz and Crown's Gift, who replaced Wind Chill yesterday. Crown's Gift was the winner of both legs of the interport series in 2004. Macau's reserve has been nominated as Rock N Roll Kid, ironically the top-rated Macau horse for the series in 2005. Hong Kong's reserves will be announced on Monday. The interport series was inaugurated in 2004 in the wake of an unsuccessful bid by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to take over the privately owned Macau operation, chaired by casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun. After the HKJC completed its due diligence exercise on the potential acquisition, it elected not to go ahead. But the exercise was not a complete waste, because out of it came a new level of co-operation that allowed the Macau Jockey Club to act as an agent for betting on Hong Kong races, and the creation of the annual interport events. Entries: Fokine (A. S. Cruz, trainer), Wealthy (C. H. Yip), Danacourt (J. size), Warcat (G. W. Moore), My Choice (D. J. Hall), Oriental Magic (D. Oughton), Redwood Falls (K. S. Cheong), Good Profit (C. S. Shum), Happee Owner (A. S. Cruz), Triumphant Unicorn (C. S. Shum), Gem Of Unionlucky (G. W. Moore), Nittan's Winner (M. C. Tam), St Moritz (S. Brown), Crown's Gift (J. Lau); Macau reserve: Rock N Roll Kid (M. C. Tam).