Enable

Owned by the late Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms and trained by John Gosden, the daughter of Nathaniel won 15 of her 19 races between 2016 and 2020, with the majority being achieved at the highest level. The bay filly, a Juddmonte Farms homebred, made history by winning an unprecedented three editions of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, and is also one of only eight horses to gain two triumphs in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. 

Before those successes, she had already won two Classics – the Oaks and Irish Oaks – and other highlights included a momentous victory in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf plus two wins in the Yorkshire Oaks.  

She earned the highest Timeform rating of any British-trained filly in more than 30 years and was the first British-trained mare to win more than £10 million in prize money. She also won the heart of Frankie Dettori, who partnered her in all but one of her victories, and Imran Shahwani, her devoted groom. 

Enable by name, very able by nature. The horse blessed with stamina and speed, plus an inquisitive nature, sprinkled her magic in four different countries, with racing fans captivated by her versatility, longevity and tenacity. She won over distances ranging from a mile to a mile and a half on all types of ground, from the front and behind.  

Her official rating peaked at 128, a notch or two below many of the sport’s greats, but Enable’s allure went beyond the number crunching of the handicappers. Teddy Grimthorpe, long-standing racing manager to Prince Khalid, said after her retirement: “Everyone always talks about ratings and while they are important, what people have to remember is what she gave to racing over five seasons – not many can look her in the eye there.” 

Enable was the result of a union between Nathaniel, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner in 2011, and Concentric, a smart filly for Prince Khalid Abdullah who was trained in France by Andre Fabre. She was foaled on February 12, 2014, and saw a racecourse for the first time on November 28, 2016, with a maiden fillies’ stakes at Newcastle chosen for her initial assignment.  

Sent off at 7-2, she swept through from off the pace to win with authority by almost four lengths, with Rab Havlin describing her afterwards as a “nice filly”. The modest crowd of 263 was one of Newcastle’s lowest of the year but those present had witnessed an “I Was There” moment. 

Within a year, she had soared to the top, reeling off successive wins in the Cheshire Oaks, Oaks, Irish Oaks, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Yorkshire Oaks and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. 

She was awesome in the Oaks at Epsom, a stunning five-length winner from the odds-on Rhododendron. The Classic was famously run in a wild thunderstorm, and Enable seemed to have lightning in her legs as she clocked a record time. 

The following month came another wide-margin success in the Irish Oaks at The Curragh, despite Dettori subsequently admitting that he had rushed back prematurely to ride her after breaking his shoulder the previous month. Just a fortnight later, they were reunited, romping home by 4½ lengths from Ulysses in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The runner-up, who had previously won the Eclipse, would win the Juddmonte International on his next start. 

Enable was then commanding in the Yorkshire Oaks, beating her stablemate Coronet by five lengths, before capping a fantastic campaign with Arc glory against 17 rivals at Chantilly.  Having been supplemented for €120,000 (about £105,000), she never looked in the slightest danger and crossed the line 2½ lengths clear of Cloth Of Stars, in the process becoming the first British-trained three-year-old filly to win the race. 

She picked up a string of end-of-season awards, including being crowned Cartier Horse of the Year. A year on from Havlin saying she was “nice”, Dettori was describing her as “a freak”. 

An early-season setback restricted her to only three runs in 2018, but she did her best to make up for lost time when returning in late summer. She easily took the September Stakes at Kempton after an 11-month absence before retaining her Arc crown at Longchamp. She fended off the late thrust of the year-younger Sea Of Class, who had lined up on the back of successive wins in the Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. 

Gosden explained that Enable had overcome plenty of adversity. “It’s not been the preparation we wanted, it’s been very difficult,” he said. “I had a hiccup between Kempton and here with a slight temperature, so it has not been easy. I’ve had a difficult year with her and started with a bit more hair than I have now. It’s entirely down to the filly and her guts and a lovely ride from Frankie.” 

No Arc winner had previously followed up at the Breeders’ Cup, but Enable had a penchant for the extraordinary and took the Turf at Churchill Downs after a great tussle with Magical, who would herself eventually be a seven-time Group 1 winner. The pair pulled nine lengths clear in a rousing encounter under the track’s iconic twin spires. 

Enable’s exploits earned her the accolade of Horse of the Year at the ROA Awards, while she also received the Older Horse prize at the Cartier Awards. 

Connections made no secret of the fact that her 2019 campaign would revolve around an attempt to win an unprecedented third Arc but first came a comeback success in the Coral-Eclipse, a second King George and then another Yorkshire Oaks. 

She again repelled Magical at Sandown, while her neck defeat of Crystal Ocean in a riveting King George was one of the highlights of the year. The pair had a tremendous tussle, with Dettori edging his willing partner ahead under hands and heels riding. She had become the first horse to win the summer showpiece twice in non-successive years. 

An all-the-way win at York, with Magical again playing second fiddle, teed up Enable perfectly for her date with destiny in Paris. She was a red-hot favourite, at 1-2, to defeat 11 rivals and the treble looked in her grasp when she led two out and then kicked on a furlong for home. However, the Andre Fabre-trained Waldgeist, who had finished third in the King George, emerged from the pack to spoil the party, flying past the mare in the final 50 yards to win going away by 1¾ lengths. 

Second spot was still enough for Enable to rewrite the record books. No other horse had won two Arcs and been placed second in another, while she also became the first European mare to exceed £10 million in earnings. 

Most assumed we had seen Enable in action for the final time, only for Prince Khalid Abdullah to announce she would stay in training as a six-year-old. 

She could not peg back a race-fit Ghaiyyath on her return in the Eclipse (that horse ended up being crowned Cartier Hose of the Year for 2020) but then came a third King George victory, when she easily brushed aside two rivals trained by Aidan O’Brien. A subsequent seven-length win in the September Stakes at Kempton was a precursor to her going off 9-10 favourite in her fourth successive Arc, but the heavy going blunted her powers and she trailed home a below-par sixth behind Sottsass. 

Time was called on her spectacular career soon after, with Grimthorpe saying: “The public following she garnered because of the way she kept coming back is special, but there are so many things that made her special. Her CV withstands the closest of inspections, very few can match what she has given to racing.” 

And she may not be finished giving, with her second vocation as a broodmare having unwritten chapters. She becomes the 13th horse to enter the Hall of Fame after Frankel, Brigadier Gerard, Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Dayjur, Dancing Brave, Galileo, Sea The Stars, Stradivarius, Pebbles, Dubai Millennium and Goldikova.