Sweet Katarina completed her third run at Nottingham last week, meaning that she was eligible to receive her first official rating. 

Following finishes of ninth, eighth and fifth in Class 2 and 3 contests over the last two months, Sweet Katarina has been given an opening handicap mark of 69 as we head towards the end of her two-year-old season. She's certainly showed a degree of improvement and an increase in maturity over the course of her first three runs, culminating in a solid performance at Nottingham last week on her final start as a Novice. Sweet Katarina was up against some smart fillies last week, including the winner of the race Thi Qar for the Gosend team, and her fifth place finish at the East Midlands track represented a good step forward for her. 

The Muir & Grassick team can start planning for the all-weather season following the reveal of her rating and they've already begun plotting the next steps for Sweet Katarina. We caught up with Chris Grassick this morning to hear his thoughts on what could be next for our two-year-old filly.

"Sweet Katarina's last run is ultimately what's landed her the mark of 69.

In truth, we were thinking it could've been a couple of pounds in either direction of that number so we're pretty pleased with the mark as a starting point. Finding her the right race next time out is at the forefront of our thoughts right now, David Probert said that Sweet Katarina is a horse that could go on and win next time out in the right conditions and that he felt that she'd certainly continue to improve following her performance at Nottingham.

Finding the perfect race is obviously easier said than done and ideally, with her mark of 69, we'd be aiming at a 0-70 for her. However there aren't any of those races coming up for two-year-olds in the near future, which means putting her into 0-75 company, which will obviously be more of a challenge. I'm not against running her over distances between 7f and a mile on the turf, and she's pretty versatile as far as ground goes, which helps given the time of the year.

I'm going to have to sit down and have a proper good look at the races coming up, but it's very much going to be a case of sending her out when the perfect opportunity comes up.

She's going to continue to get bigger and stronger as her career goes on and she's definitely off a winnable mark, it's just a case of finding the right race for her."

It shouldn't be too long before we see Sweet Katarina again, likely on the all-weather for the just the second time in her fledgling career. Check back next week to find out which target has been confirmed for our filly and to find out how you could be in attendance at her next race as one of her Owners for the Day!