Karuta Queen is one of the most popular horses in the country thanks to her lightning early pace, gutsy determination and probably her trainer as well.

Neville Layt is the man responsible for turning this rather cheap Magic Millions purchase into one of the best sprinters in Australia.

She’s still a three year old filly but has already proved herself capable in open grade where she ran second to Black Caviar during the spring.

She makes her autumn return this Saturday when she runs in The Farm Flying over 1000m at Warwick Farm.

It’s only a $70,000 race and at the moment just eight horses are nominated.

As it stands she’d be a clear cut favourite with only the handicapper to keep her out of the running.

“Now we’ve got to worry about what weight she gets,” Layt said.

“I was hoping around about 55kg or 56kg, I’d be very happy.”

Karuta Queen trialled in Canberra a week or so back blitzing the field by a monumental margin and stopping the clock at a decent time too.

“She ran a nice time in that and she’s improved from there, she’s on an upward spiral all the way,” Layt said.

“I can’t get her looking any better than what she is.”

Layt says she could have a bit more beef  behind her this time in too.

“I think she’s a lot stronger horse this time in, she’s thickened up a lot,” he said.

Following this weekend it’ll be back to black type and hopefully a profitable campaign launch.

“After this all going well we’ll head to the Light Fingers on the 18th of February, after that we’ll sit down and work it out from there,” he said.

Layt has experimented with stepping Karuta Queen out in distance previously without success but now she’s a little older he feels it could be worth another go.

“I’d really like to take on the Group 1’s in the Galaxy or the TJ Smith, if we get her to relax a little bit more she might run 1350m.

“Then we could look at something like the Doomben 10,000 in Brisbane.”