A kind barrier draw has persuaded trainer Will Clarken to start filly Molto Bella in Adelaide on Saturday, rather than Flemington.

The opportunity to keep the two-year-old debutante closer to home also influenced his decision not to make the interstate trek to Melbourne.

Molto Bella will line up in the Centrebet Plate (1000m) at Morphettville Parks on Saturday and has barrier three.

Her early scratching from Flemington, where she drew gate four, has left eight runners in the Christmas Season Plate (1000m).

"She's drawn perfectly here and she's drawn a little bit wide over there," Clarken said.

Molto Bella has not been given an official trial but has shown enough at home for Clarken to declare she wouldn't have been out of place had they elected to run at Flemington.

"She's a filly that's had a couple of private trials and trialled up well and I think she would be competitive if she did venture over that way," Clarken said.

"But she can stay here and be ultra-competitive.

"She's VOBIS Gold so obviously that's the carrot we're going to chase but we'll let her go around in Adelaide, have a look at her, and if she's going well we'll sneak her across the border."

Clarken expects Molto Bella to settle in the first half of the field.

"She's a really big, strong filly. She's tall and free-running and she'll go forward in her races.

"She's not overly quick but I think she'll have a really high cruising speed."

Meanwhile, Clarken's three-year-old Molto Bene, who finished unplaced as favourite in the Group One Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in October, is being prepared for a return.

"Just after Caulfield she pulled up with a few little niggles," Clarken said.

"We hit a pretty hard track that day and it exposed her a little bit.

"There was nothing major but it was enough to pull the pin on that campaign and she'll get ready for something over the Adelaide carnival."

He said Molto Bene came to hand quickly but no decision had been made on when or where she would return.

"She's not really a big, gross filly so she won't take long to come up and we'll just have a look at her in a couple of weeks and look at what direction we're going to go in," he said.

Clarken said Molto Bene could be set for the Group One Australasian Oaks in Adelaide in March.