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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Tony Gollan suspects he has a spring carnival level filly in the shape of Barbie’s Sister and says there’s no better way to put a young horse to the test than by sending them to Sydney.

Trainer Tony Gollan (Pic: Grant Guy)

That, and a lack of options back home, is the simple exercise behind tackling the Ranvet Handicap (1100m) at Randwick and while he's quietly confident the filly is up to the task Gollan is taking nothing for granted.

“Sydney two-year-old racing is strong every week, I don’t think you ever get a gimme,’’ Gollan said.

“They’re always full of horses with good pedigrees who have trialled up well, they don’t take horses to the races to educate them.

“We didn’t have any short two-year-old races up here so we looked around and there was the race at Randwick.

“If you can measure up in a race like this it will give us good options to push on further into the spring. We’re testing the waters to see where she sits.”

Barbie’s Sister, as her name suggests a sibling of Gollan’s former classy filly Outback Barbie, was a Listed winner of the Calaway Gal at Eagle Farm in December and was Magic Millions bound but had her preparation halted when a small knee chip was found.

Gollan said she’s had a perfect build up and is encouraged by the fact that runner-up from her last start win, El Morzillo, campaigned in Sydney during the autumn running a close fourth in the Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes, a race that included the Golden Slipper winner.

“We gave her plenty of time to get over that, I’ve had a faultless prep and two 1000m jump outs or trials to get her ready and have her nice and fit to get away,’’ he said.

“The form out of that race is quite good, El Morzillo was in that race and went down to Sydney and raced well without winning.

“It gives you a little bit of confidence going down there thinking your filly can measure up and if she does there’s other options whether they be Sydney or Melbourne.”

A look at Barbie’s Sister’s recent seven length barrier trial win, and her two race starts, illustrates she’s a filly blessed with plenty of speed and Gollan said that will be made use of from the outside barrier.

She was installed second favourite, at $4.80 with TAB on Thursday with Tommy Berry to ride, for her Sydney debut and Gollan felt that was a fair enough assessment.

“She’s a really sharp filly, but I wouldn’t say she’s lead at all costs,’’ he said.

“I’ll leave it to Tommy as to how she steps away but she’s normally quickly into stride and musters speed really quickly as well.

Barbie's Sister wins a trial at Doomben on July 4

“The market has got her pretty right, she has a straightforward racing pattern about her, she’s quite forward and she’s right up to the mark.

“It’s pretty standard for your Sydney two-year-old races, it’s deep enough and the form out of it will be good enough to look at better races.

“It gives the filly a chance to travel, you can’t put a price on what travelling young horses and settling into a new environment does to their mental attitude going forward.”

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