Wife of late racehorse owner Alan Acton has Magic Millions dream with Tony Gollan debutant Hi Barbie

Jennifer Acton paid $1.2m to keep the first foal out of her late husband’s favourite horse Outback Barbie, and the Tony Gollan filly will step out for her debut on Saturday.

Jennifer Acton is looking to conjure a Magic Millions miracle with a horse bred by her late husband Alan and inadvertently named by her grandson Tommy at Doomben on Saturday.

Hi Barbie is the first foal out of Acton’s Outback Barbie, who was a popular horse in Queensland and owned by central Queensland cattle baron Alan Acton and his wife.

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Jennifer Acton pledged to continue her husband’s racing interests following his death last year in a tragic helicopter crash while mustering cattle and will be looking for help from above on Saturday when the I am Invincible filly takes to the track for the first time in the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes (1100m).

Acton went to $1.2m at the Magic Millions earlier this year to keep the filly in honour of Alan, and said it was only fitting given his love for Outback Barbie and his determination to find a good broodmare to breed from.

“It would be a dream come true to get this one to the Magic Millions, and I’d like to think it would put a smile on Alan’s face to get her there,” Jennifer Acton said.

“Alan bred her, we actually saw her as a two-week-old foal when we went travelling in 2022.

“Alan is part of the whole story with her, which makes it so special, because she is the first foal out of Outback Barbie as well.

Jennifer Acton will race the first daughter out of Outback Barbie on Saturday.

“He wanted to get a broodmare that he could continue to breed from because it is getting out of hand to own a horse by yourself these days, it is so expensive.

“Barbie has a I Am Invincible colt that will go to the Magic Millions in January, but she did lose her foal this year, which is a shame.

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“She went back to I Am Invincible this year and she has had a positive scan there.

“It is a bit nerve wracking, so I am trying to keep calm and carry on, it was always Alan that would get nervous before the races, so I think I have inherited that from him.”

It was a trip to the Barbie movie with her daughter Jessica and grandson Tommy that produced the Hi Barbie name.

“I wanted to keep Barbie in the name because there were so many people that followed Outback Barbie with the catchy name,” Acton said.

“My daughter Jessica and her little boy Tommy, she had no one to leave him with, so she took him to the Barbie movie with me.

Jennifer Acton (left) is looking to honour her late husband Alan with Hi Barbie.

“All through the movie, they go ‘Hi Barbie’.

“Tommy rang me one night and instead of saying ‘Hi Ma’ or ‘Hi Grandma’, he said ‘Hi Barbie’, I said to him you just named the racehorse for me, it just sounded so good.

“Alan really loved (Outback) Barbie, he loved his family and the work he did, but he really loved his race horses, it was about five generations of his family involved in it ever since they came to Australia.”

Trainer Tony Gollan has a high opinion of the filly, who is a $3.30 second elect behind Ciaron Maher’s Icarian Dream ($2.60). s’s

“There are a lot of good horses, so it’s not easy to do, but Tony has been preparing her for a while for this race on Saturday,” Acton said.

“You get an awful lot of horses that don’t take you anywhere, then Barbie came along and took us places, so for me to keep racing going after Alan is so important and Tony Gollan is helping me with it, I am learning a lot of him.”