New Zealand trainer Murray Baker has announced that It’s A Dundeel will return to Australia in August as the three-year-old Triple Crown winner enters the serious stage of his 2013 Spring Racing Carnival preparations.

It's A Dundeel impressed trainer Murray Baker and jockey James McDonald in trackwork this morning. Photo by: Steve Hart

The High Chaparral colt has been back in work in New Zealand for a couple of weeks and had a controlled gallop over 600 metres at Cambridge this morning.

Baker told Racing Ahead that he is really happy with It’s A Dundeel and will begin to ramp up his preparations in the next week.

“He is in good nick, he has spelled well, grown and filled out,” Baker said.

“Next week he will start to pick it up, at this point he has only had a couple of little breeze alongs, which is what he did this morning and what he did last week.

“He may have a jump out next week at Cambridge if they have them.”

The veteran trainer clearly isn’t the only one that is delighted with It’s A Dundeel with Baker indicating that jockey James McDonald, who has returned home to New Zealand after a riding holiday in the United Kingdom, was brimming with praise for the rising four-year-old.

“James McDonald has ridden him in his last two gallops and he said he feels like a new horse,” Baker said.

The Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 31 and the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on September 7 have both been announced as the starting point for the 2013 Australian Derby winner but Baker confirmed that a decision on his first-up run was yet to be made.

“We haven’t settled on anything yet but it will be one of them and I’d say he will probably go to Melbourne around the middle of August,” the veteran trainer said.

The ultimate 2013 Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival goal for It’s A Dundeel has not been confirmed with the Caulfield Cup (2400m), Cox Plate (2040m) and Melbourne Cup (3200m) all on the agenda.