Testing related record for get :new

Basically I have a user model related to another model.  I've setup the controller to create the intersection record when New is called.  I know it works if I test it by running the app, but when I test it in the controller test, I get a failure.

Here is the basics of the test:

get :new
@newrec = assigns(:newrec)
assert(@newrec.relatedmodel.count > 0)

I imagine this is because even though the related record exists in memory, it hasn't been