When ParisLongchamp opens its doors on Sunday morning, there will be more than the usual air of anticipation that precedes European racing’s greatest single event. It feels like we have been spoiled in recent times with an abundance of historic junctures in the sport and yet here is another as England’s Queen Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) enters uncharted terrain seeking a third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
It is testament to the ridiculous consistency of Juddmonte’s latest marvel at a level of competition that gradually wears at most horses that the task at hand seems almost straightforward. Renowned the world over as the foremost masters in the arena of breeding thoroughbred racers, Khalid Abdullah’s operation has reached a level of supreme productivity that has all peers and competitors in awe.
I was 11 when I saw Dancing Brave at Newmarket and he ignited the flame for me and many others. His passage through 1986 served as an ideal introduction to metronomic brilliance. Up to then, Juddmonte served us Rainbow Quest (USA) and Rousillon (USA) and once “The Brave” was sent to stud they conjured the likes of Warning (GB), Commander In Chief (GB), Zafonic (USA) and Workforce (GB), but it was not just a gift that kept on giving.
Frankel (GB)
Almost as if all that thought and travail was the most glorious trial run of all time, in 2010 the same pink-white-and-green was carried by the ultimate machine in horseflesh. Along came Frankel (GB) like a modern-day Eclipse and, while it was glorious to be there soaking it all in before he retired at the end of 2012, surely a lengthy, barren aftermath awaited us all. Or at least, reasonably, that’s what we thought.
How to follow that? Just over four years later, the answer came but for the first few months nobody heard. Enable’s debut on the newly-laid Tapeta surface at Newcastle preceded her sole defeat in a conditions event at Newbury where she sported the green cap of the owner’s second string.
Even that day, the now-familiar enthusiasm was on show as William Buick exercised restraint and had she got a run when she needed it between four out and two out we would probably be talking about an unblemished record.
Enable winning the 2018 Arc
While she was never going to replicate the gravity of the individual performances of Sir Henry Cecil’s life masterpiece from there, she has nonetheless forced her own way into immortality. In the Yorkshire Oaks in August, she matched Frankel’s number of Group 1 wins in an almost seamless transition of influence. And she is not quite done.
It seems obvious now that having created a Frankel the only way to go was to generate the best European filly or mare that has been seen in the post-war period, if ever. After the modern-day Eclipse, you end up with a remake of Sceptre.
All within less than a decade. There has been Dahlia (USA), Allez France (USA), Oh So Sharp (Ire), Miesque (USA), Indian Skimmer (USA), Goldikova (Ire), Treve (Fr), Bosra Sham (USA), Ouija Board (GB), and Zarkava (Ire), and that is probably omitting several others that warrant inclusion in an elite club. Yet none could have hoped to equal the dynamic repetition of success in the world’s greatest races of this mare.
Enable during a working gallop
Even during what those closest to her describe as a testing period when she was sidetracked in training in 2018, she still managed to equal the rarefied achievements of Alleged (USA) and Treve in doubling her Arc tally. Was she even 100% that day? Most would agree that she was probably operating under par and the idea of winning one of these in those circumstances is almost inconceivable.
Perfect alchemy
On Sunday, she has perfect ground conditions, a flawless preparation and the bonus of a trainer-jockey combination who have found big-race victory at every turn with ease this summer. Framed as it is in the capital of France, her defining moment will only further entrench the connection between two of the great racing nations during her home country’s wretched pre-Brexit spell.
"Her defining moment will only further entrench the connection between two of the great racing nations during her home country’s wretched pre-Brexit spell." - Tom Frary
What makes Enable so unbeatable? Her physicality certainly helps, with her muscular presence surely at least the equal of most colts yet she gets a three-pound concession as standard. On pedigree, she has an intriguing 3x2 inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells (USA), with Nathaniel a grandson of and her smart dam Concentric (GB) a daughter of Coolmore’s great.
He fits this dynasty fantastically well, being the sire of the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly winner Daring Miss (GB) and the G2 Prix de Royallieu winner and G1 Prix de Diane runner-up Dance Routine (GB), who is in turn the dam of Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) who could only finish second in the Arc in 2015 and 2016.
Enable and Frankie Dettori
Exactly what constitutes an Enable or a Frankel is impossible to pinpoint, as it is with most ground-breaking sportsmen and women. It is a case of perfect alchemy in the area of the inexact art or science of breeding and training racehorses. In that mystic area, Juddmonte seem endowed with powers that defy logic.
"It is a case of perfect alchemy in the area of the inexact art or science of breeding and training racehorses. In that mystic area, Juddmonte seem endowed with powers that defy logic." - Tom Frary
At around five past four on Sunday afternoon in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, Frankie Dettori who is accelerating towards the pinnacle of his own profession as he enters his twilight era as a jockey will climb aboard the end result of all that mental and physical deed. His all-time favourite racehorse. The two and a half minutes to follow, watched around the globe, will define the racing decade and it is hard to imagine anything other than a victorious closing note for the mare and her connections.
