Sweet Katarina heads off on her winter break following a minor wind operation
12 Nov 2026
Sweet Katarina will head off on her winter break now, following her debut season in which she took to the track on four occasions.
Having started out in some very tough contests over the course of her first three runs, Class 3 races at Nottingham and Kempton and a Class 2 race at Ascot, Sweet Katarina was given an opening mark of 69. It wasn't too much of a surprise to see her awarded that rating, given she had been beaten a combined 21 lengths over the course of those three runs. Her handicap debut came at Bath just over two weeks after she was given her mark and she failed to make an impact in that race, finishing 12th of the 13 runners on the day. The Muir & Grassick team thought that her breathing might have been an issue following that race, so we got in touch to find out the latest from the team to find out more.
"After some disappointing runs, we wondered if Sweet Katarina's breathing was causing any issues, so on Wednesday this week we took her to the vet, Ben Brain, who is regarded as the leading vet on equine breathing complaints, to see if he could find any problems. The normal procedure is to scope her as she's galloping which involves a small camera being placed in her windpipe to see if any abnormalities can be spotted.
She galloped well, and Ben's initial reaction was she was all clear beyond a slight flexing in her vocal chord, which would have caused the noise a couple of her riders have reported hearing and would be causing her some discomfort. Fortunately it's a simple procedure to fix the flexing, so it was carried out there and then using a laser rather than anything surgical taking place and she was back home with us the same evening,
We'll now give her a winter break, which we were planning anyway, and then look to get her back in work in the New Year. With this issue cleared up now, hopefully we'll have plenty to look forward to with her next year."
Sweet Katarina will now be enjoying a short break over the winter, with a view to running again at the start of 2027. Hopefully her time off gives her the renewed energy that we're hoping it will and that she hits the ground running as we head into the New Year!
Having started out in some very tough contests over the course of her first three runs, Class 3 races at Nottingham and Kempton and a Class 2 race at Ascot, Sweet Katarina was given an opening mark of 69. It wasn't too much of a surprise to see her awarded that rating, given she had been beaten a combined 21 lengths over the course of those three runs. Her handicap debut came at Bath just over two weeks after she was given her mark and she failed to make an impact in that race, finishing 12th of the 13 runners on the day. The Muir & Grassick team thought that her breathing might have been an issue following that race, so we got in touch to find out the latest from the team to find out more.
"After some disappointing runs, we wondered if Sweet Katarina's breathing was causing any issues, so on Wednesday this week we took her to the vet, Ben Brain, who is regarded as the leading vet on equine breathing complaints, to see if he could find any problems. The normal procedure is to scope her as she's galloping which involves a small camera being placed in her windpipe to see if any abnormalities can be spotted.
She galloped well, and Ben's initial reaction was she was all clear beyond a slight flexing in her vocal chord, which would have caused the noise a couple of her riders have reported hearing and would be causing her some discomfort. Fortunately it's a simple procedure to fix the flexing, so it was carried out there and then using a laser rather than anything surgical taking place and she was back home with us the same evening,
We'll now give her a winter break, which we were planning anyway, and then look to get her back in work in the New Year. With this issue cleared up now, hopefully we'll have plenty to look forward to with her next year."
Sweet Katarina will now be enjoying a short break over the winter, with a view to running again at the start of 2027. Hopefully her time off gives her the renewed energy that we're hoping it will and that she hits the ground running as we head into the New Year!
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