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By Ray Hickson

There’s been no hiding well bred filly Facile in her two runaway barrier trial wins and co-trainer Sterling Alexiou sees no reason why they won’t translate to her racetrack debut at Randwick on Saturday.

Sterling Alexiou and Gerald Ryan. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

When the daughter of multiple Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist steps out for her debut in Saturday’s $500,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) it will be 98 days until the Golden Slipper and while talk of that is a little premature it may not be if she lives up to her trials.

Her first trial resulted in an almost 4-1/2 length win at Warwick Farm on November 18 and 11 days later put almost 3-1/2 lengths on Gimcrack Stakes winner Platinum Jubilee.

“She’s trialled up in good style, we haven’t done a huge amount with her at home,’’ Alexiou said.

“What you’ve seen in her trials, everyone has seen what we’ve seen. She has a bit of quality about her, she has a bit of speed so she should jump and put herself on speed.

“We think she is a nice filly going forward. If she handles herself well we might have a handy one for the autumn.”

The youngster was $2.10 favourite with TAB on Thursday in the Nursery, $21 in early Slipper betting.

Facile was a $420,000 purchase and is a product of two horses Gerald Ryan, who co-trains with Alexiou, guided through their careers – Trapeze Artist and I Like It Easy, the latter was runner-up to Graff on debut and a Listed winner of the Reginald Allen at her fifth start.

So it makes sense for the partnership to snap her up and train her.

“She was a nice style of filly, her mother was by Pierro and was a nice type of horse so it’s not surprising to see her throw a quality individual,’’ Alexiou said.

“We’ll find out more on Saturday but it’s exciting to get her to the races and see where she fits in.

“She’s run good times in her trials and won by margins.”

From barrier five Alexiou basically expects Brenton Avdulla to lead on Facile but it won’t be at all costs.

“She does quite a bit of work at home behind a mate and seems to adapt quite well,’’ he said.

“She has a gate that gives her options, Brenton will jump and be positive and if something wants to go stupid we’ll let it go but otherwise we’ll probably take it up.”

In two starts since a breakthrough Group 3 win, stablemate Sky Command has shown she’s just as adept on dry ground as in the heavy and Alexiou is confident she can hold her form in the Listed $160,000 Racing & Sports Razor Sharp Handicap (1200m).

She led all the way to win the Nivison back on October 8 on a heavy track but has since recorded a placing in the Choisir and last start was runner-up to Zethus on good 3 tracks at 1100m.

“She’s really knuckling down in the last part of her race and talking ground off them,’’ he said.

“The step back to 1200m is what she’s looking for now.

“She probably had a few question marks on her on firmish tracks coming back from those wet tracks but I think she’s proven herself just as capable on the dry.”

Alexiou is confident Big Dance runner-up Cisco Bay and Little Dance placegetter Steely can make their presence felt in the Thanks Jack & Bob Ingham Handicap (1600m).

He said both were unsuited, for different reasons, in their last starts at Rosehill.

Facile wins a trial at Canterbury on November 29

Steely started favourite in the ATC Cup (2000m) and finished midfield but returns to the mile with blinkers on and Alexiou said that should see him fire with the promise of more galloping room.

“Things just didn’t happen for him the other day,’’ he said.

“He’d been caught deep in his couple of runs previously and barrier one looked nice but he just got bottled up on the fence with nowhere to go and couldn’t improve his momentum at any stage.

“If things can transpire in the first part of the races for him he will hit the line hard.”

Cisco Bay produced a creditable fifth in the Group 3 Festival Stakes (1500m) at the same meeting and has shown a liking for Randwick in the past, most recently winning the Big Dance Wild Card and going down narrowly to Rustic Steel in the $2 million feature.

“Rosehill probably isn’t his track, he still rattled off some good splits but they seem to put the pedal down at Rosehill 600-700m out and he gets off the bit chasing,’’ Alexiou said.

“If he can get a nice run and be exposed at the right time he’s in career best form and will be hitting the line hard.”

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