Tony Gollan filly Hi Barbie has returned bigger and better for Queensland winter carnival campaign

Gollan revealed on Monday that Hi Barbie was likely to resume in the Listed Calaway Gal Stakes (1200m) for two-year-old fillies on April 26 at Eagle Farm, with the back-up plan being the $200,000 Listed Dalrello Stakes (2YO, 1200m) at the same venue a week later.

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Hi Barbie is owned by Jennifer Acton, who tragically lost her husband Alan in a helicopter crash in central Queensland in 2023.

Alan bred $1.2m purchase Hi Barbie, who was named by the late cattle baron’s grandson Tommy in a nod to the hit movie Barbie, starring Australia’s Margot Robbie.

The filly hasn’t raced since the $3m Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) in January when she surged to the line to finish sixth, 3¼ lengths behind the winner O’ Ole.

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“She was terrific,” Gollan said about her performance on the Gold Coast.

“I mean outside the winners she probably had the run of the race.

“She got back a long way on a track that was pretty hard to get back too far, particularly with the amount of kickback, but she ran through the line beautifully.

“She’s a lovely, big scopey filly and physically she looks like a two-year-old who’s really going to come on later in the season and certainly as a three-year-old.

“That’s how she’s appearing to us. She’s a whole lot better filly this time around.”

Hi Barbie dropped out the back of the field in the Group 3 BJ McLachlan (1200m) on December 21 but it was later discovered she had suffered a heart condition.

But Gollan insisted she’s now good as gold after a barrage of tests and it’s an issue he doesn’t even think about now.

“It’s a funny one. A lot of horses get it once and never get it again,” he said.

“You see horses run very well in the next race after having it and then it rears its head.

“It’s not something that I really think about with her. There’s no issue at all.”

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The daughter of Outback Barbie, who won almost $1.6m in prizemoney, trialled last Tuesday at Doomben and Gollan said she was ready to make an impact this winter.

“I think she’s a really nice filly. Obviously she’s got the pedigree, she’s got the motor and she’s got a lovely attitude about her,” he said of Hi Barbie, who won her first race in late November, the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes (1110m) on a Heavy 10 track at Doomben.

“It’s special to have such a nice horse for the Actons and now it’s about managing her and putting her in the right races.”

Meanwhile, Gollan confirmed that jockey Mark Zahra would replace the suspended Blake Shinn for the ride on his stable star Antino in Saturday’s Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.

Originally published as Tony Gollan filly Hi Barbie has returned bigger and better for Queensland winter carnival campaign