In-form trainer Nick Olive is banking on a good barrier draw to help offset Voice Commander's hefty weight in the Listed Lough Neagh Stakes at Doomben.Olive was surprised when the dual stakeswinner was given topweight of 58kg for the 1350-metre sprint in which 11 of the 19 entries are on the 53kg limit."He is probably the best horse in the race but he's got to draw a barrier," Olive said."He got one or even one-and-a-half kilos more than I thought he would. He had a rating of 99 in NSW but up he

In-form trainer Nick Olive is banking on a good barrier draw to help offset Voice Commander's hefty weight in the Listed Lough Neagh Stakes at Doomben.

Olive was surprised when the dual stakeswinner was given topweight of 58kg for the 1350-metre sprint in which 11 of the 19 entries are on the 53kg limit.

"He is probably the best horse in the race but he's got to draw a barrier," Olive said.

"He got one or even one-and-a-half kilos more than I thought he would. He had a rating of 99 in NSW but up here he's rated 103, I don't know how that's happened."

Trained out of Olive's Canberra stables, Voice Commander arrived in Queensland last week and has settled in well according to his trainer who has also made the trip north.

The five-year-old is no stranger to Queensland having taken out the Listed Weetwood Handicap at Toowoomba during a three-start winter carnival campaign.

He will go into Saturday's race at his second run from a spell after lumping 59.5kg to post a tough first-up win over 1200m at his home track.

He didn't have an easy run in transit but Olive has given him an extra week to get over that run.

"It was a great effort. He sat three-deep and he was run off his legs early, he had to chase and was off the bit from the 1000-metre mark," Olive said.

"At the 700 he didn't look like he could win but he found his straps and ran over the top of them.

"He pulled up well and he's had three weeks between runs so he's had a good break."

Boosting Olive's confidence is the decision by regular rider Tye Angland to miss the lucrative Villiers Stakes meeting at Randwick on Saturday in favour of partnering Voice Commander in the $200,000 Lough Neagh.

Angland will be chasing his second feature race win in the space of a week after his dashing frontrunning ride aboard the Tim Martin-trained Scouting Wide to win last Saturday's Christmas Cup at Rosehill.

Olive, who has already trained more than 30 winners in NSW this season, has also been in stellar recent form and celebrated a winning treble at Wagga on Tuesday.