Champion racemare Enable, kept in training for 2020 to seek a third victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, began her 6-year-old season with a strong second in Sunday’s Group 1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown. The John Gosden-trained Juddmonte mare was defeated 2 1/4 lengths by frontrunner Ghaiyyath, but fended off challenges from Japan, Magic Wand, and Deirdre.
“We’re delighted with that, she ran a gorgeous race,” Gosden told racingpost.com. “We know about Ghaiyyath and Sandown is a great front-runner’s track. We’re very happy. She enjoyed it and the zest and desire was there, but trying to get involved with a front-running horse like him was never going to be her deal.”
Gosden said Enable was only 85 percent fit for Sunday’s race, and jockey Frankie Dettori confirmed that the mare was a bit tired in the final 100 yards.
Up next, plans call for Enable to try for a record-setting three-peat in the King George at Ascot on July 25. The mare’s major year-end target is a historic third win in the Arc, a goal she fell just short of last year when Waldgeist ran her down over the very soft ground at York.
Enable won the Arc in 2017 and 2018, and became the first horse in history to win the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season when she crossed the wire first at Churchill Downs in November 2018.
Read more at the Racing Post.
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