Barbie has entered the Primrose Hill Charity Cup to raise money for the adoption of horses. In this event, there are four trails and four races, which will earn money for horses, plus open fun mini-games.

Players begin at the main menu, where they can choose to play a new game, continue a saved game, or visit the stables to change Barbie's clothes, the horse's appearance, and visit the adopted horses in a photo section. Once everything is set, it's off to the races!

There are four trails to race on, and four race tracks which will open up mini-games if players complete the races in either first or second place. The trails are mostly for practicing needed skills for the upcoming race event. Each race features hurdles to jump, obstacles and powerups. The powerups mostly consist of items that will boost the horse's speed or add more time to the timer.

The tracks are attractive, and are fun to race around for the most part. They are just the right length and challenge, with a balanced mix of obstacles and items to collect. Each race has a clock, and the time will have to be closely met within a few seconds to open up the mini-game. It's almost impossible to get around at least three of the races within this time limit without the help of a time bonus that spells out B-A-R-B-I-E with the collection of letter balloons, but these balloons are mostly easy to find.

However, while attractive, these tracks are difficult to move around because of bad control design. Moving a long horse around the corners and curves of the tracks is difficult, and Barbie will often get stuck, or miss the gates. Jumping is harder than it should be, and seems to require that the horse be jumped way before necessary to be successful. Collision detection is not good, and Barbie will register hits when the horse isn't even touching the animals crossing the tracks.

One strange inclusion in the races is the addition of "rickety bridges", which require Barbie to dismount and lead her horse over them, this disrupts the flow of the race and is just plain aggravating because they move so slowly across the bridge while the timer is running. Also, positioning Barbie correctly at the right pixel in order to dismount is hard, and time is often wasted moving the horse around to just the right spot.

There are four mini-games, which are: Horseshoes, a horseshoe tossing game; Shoe Shuffle, a Towers of Hanoi game; Maze Valley, a maze activity; and Happy Trails, a "pipes" type game where track sections are rotated to move the horse down the track. These are good variations on popular arcade games, except for the maze game, which is a pain because the horse keeps getting stuck at the turns and intersections. Also included are a photo album of adopted horses, which features short descriptions of the horses, plus a few horse factoids, and the ability to change the appearance of Barbie and her horse.

Barbie and her horse look really nice, and are drawn realistically. The horse looks just like a horse should, and moves well, too. The tracks appear just like the ones we see on horse shows, and appear to be based on the English style of these types of events, but Barbie rides her horse without the up and down riding movement on the horse.

The music consists of what seems to be one main tune, which is pleasant and relaxing to listen to, although unmemorable. Sound effects are minimal, and are mostly hooves striking the road and animal noises.

This is one of those games which I want to rate better, because of its innovation and thoughtfulness in concept. But (isn't there always a but?), the actual execution leaves somewhat to be desired. The controls are just frustrating at times, and getting that horse around the tracks is harder than it should be. Dismounting and walking the horse across bridges is boring and hard to do, as getting Barbie into the right spot to dismount can be tricky. Also, the game is pretty short; we ran through the entire game in just under a couple of hours the first time through. The mini-games can be played over again and the tracks raced again for better times, but older kids probably won't come back too often.