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By Ray Hickson

Facile has the "runs on the board", Arctic Glamour has all the potential and Ballroom Bella is the unknown quantity.

Trainer Sterling Alexiou (Pic: Grant Guy)

There’s plenty for trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou to learn about their trio of fillies in Saturday’s Group 2 $300,000 TAB Light Fingers Stakes (1200m) at Randwick and Alexiou said they’ve all earned the right to be tested.

With the Group 1 Surround Stakes looming later this month, the Light Fingers is the logical place on the calendar to see where a filly fits into the picture and how realistic Group 1 ambitions are.

“Facile probably has the runs on the board and the map and racing position, Arctic Glamour obviously has a bit more scope to get over 1400m to a mile,’’ Alexiou said.

“I don’t think there’s much between them and it will come down to who gets the right run and is afforded the best ride.

“It was pretty obvious a fair way out that anything that was going to run in the Surround would run in the Light Fingers and there’s nothing in that field we weren’t expecting.”

Arctic Glamour is the most favoured by the market of the trio, at $7 with TAB on Thursday, and she’s coming off a fifth behind Joliestar in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) in mid-November.

Alexiou said a race like the Surround will really suit her but showed at the start of last preparation she’s capable of sprinting sharply fresh before being too good for Joliestar at stakes level second-up.

“She’s retuning off a mile prep and even though it might be short of her best in her maiden she was pretty dynamic at Rosehill over 1200m first-up last prep,’’ he said.

“We were really happy with her effort in the Thousand Guineas.

“She’s not a filly that normally settles up on top of the speed and that day at Caulfield it was terribly hard to make ground from back and wide. On a fairer track she would have finished a lot closer to the winner.

“We’ve been happy with how she’s prepped up, how much improvement she’s made in her break we’ll get a guide on Saturday.”

Last time Facile raced at Randwick she went down in a stirring duel with Learning To Fly, who she faces again on Saturday, and she’s also returning from a Melbourne spring bid.

After beating the Thousand Guineas winner Joliestar first-up she was just outgunned by Arkansaw Kid at Caulfield then pulled up with issues after failing at Flemington.

“She didn’t handle Caulfield all that crash hot so it was a really good effort to run second that day,’’ he said.

“She looked a beaten horse a long way out and she struggled that way of going, once she balanced up she found the line again.

“Anything that could go wrong went wrong at Flemington after that. We weren’t happy with how she pulled up after that race.”

What Facile has in her favour in the Light Fingers is a draw that will allow her to race to her strengths.

“Her natural racing pattern is to begin well and roll forward, and I’d say Tim (Clark) will take up the running unless something wants to go silly up front,’’ Alexiou said.

Arctic Glamour wins a Rosehill trial on February 5

Ballroom Bella mixed it with Kimochi on debut, and started in the market, but since then the stable has taken a step back and allowed her to work through the grades.

She knocked over a maiden and a Benchmark 64 to start her last prep and held her own as she rose in class in two subsequent runs.

“She’s always shown good promise, we’ve taken her along a bit quieter than the other two,’’ Alexiou said.

“We thought she was always a filly that had black type ability.

“We threw her in the deep end early as a two-year-old in a really good form race. It’s a bit hard to poke any holes in her form since albeit it’s a fair step up in grade.”

All the entries, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting