When Villa Carlotta arrived at Segenhoe Stud she was already a miniature racehorse.

The Street Cry filly out of Florentina grabbed the attention of Peter O'Brien from the start, and he thought she was a keeper.

"There are one or two a year where you just look at them and think, what are you going to do," O'Brien said. "She was a standout and I didn't want to sell another cracking daughter of Street Cry."

O'Brien is a confidant of owner John Camilleri, who bred and sold Winx, and it was an easy sell to keep the first filly from a family the breeder had developed.

"She was just a cracking sort, like her mum, and I always try to keep the first filly from my families," Camilleri said. "I remember going to the farm, seeing her, and she had a great head and moved well, so it was an easy decision to keep her."

Villa Carlotta has proven she has more than good looks, winning a maiden at Randwick on debut, and she steps out in the Reisling Stakes on Saturday. As she tries to add some black type, mum Florentina is off to England for a northern-hemisphere mating.

"She is such a good mare and you want to give her a chance with the best stallions, and she will see one you can't go to in Australia," Camilleri said. "Florentina had a late foal this season, so we opted not to cover her so she could go to Europe and be given a chance over there.

"She has had a couple of horses to race that have performed and we have a Medaglia D'Oro filly going to [the] Easter [sales] from her at the moment. That could change after Saturday."

Camilleri was like a proud dad after Villa Carlotta's debut win, and again goes to the race with little expectation on Saturday.

"It is a big jump from a maiden to a group 2, and we are taking on the Golden Slipper favourite," he said. "We actually expected to run second at her first start because there was Godolphin filly [Alizee], which was odds on and was supposed to be a star. But she got the job done.

"We run into She Will Reign, which has looked outstanding, but we have faith in our filly that she will run a good race and get some black type."

Trainer James Cummings noted it was not ideal jumping from a 1000-metres maiden to a group 2 Slipper trial, but is also aware that English and Exosphere have done it in the past couple of years.

"Usually you would want them to have another run before stepping into stakes grade. You would generally do that at any other time of the year," Cummings said. "But it is this time of year where you have to take those big steps with the two-year-olds because of what is coming up.

"If they are up to it they can do it. Just look at English and Exosphere, which did it off similar preparations. She is a very good filly and we are going to find how good on Saturday."

The ultimate racing form guide with free tips, live odds and alerts for all racing.