#ArcRoad : Enable strikes on her comeback, on course for a third Qatar Arc de Triomphe

Enable (Nathaniel) is the real deal as champions go, and the star mare returned to action in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes (Gr1) over 2.000 metres at Sandown on Saturday. The representative of Prince Khalid Abdullah hadn’t been seen in public since her victory in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr1) on November 3. One had reason to fear that lack of fitness against race fitter rivals might find her out and that a track riding on the fast side, combined to a trip which was the short side, might also play against her, but Enable confirmed that she operates in a different sphere to her rivals. Under Frankie Dettori, Enable took the measure of Hunting Horn (Camelot) at the entrance of the straight, before turning back the attack of  Magical (Galileo), whom she beat by three-quarters of a length by at Churchill Downs: the same margin as at Sandown. It would be an exaggeration to say that Enable flew home, granted that she was starting to empty out a little towards the end. However. the John Gosden runner is steadily gaining in condition and the aim is to get her to peak for her long term target: the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the world’s top race, at ParisLongchamp, on October 6th, when the mare will be out to win the race for an unprecedented third time. Before then, Enable is being aimed at the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr1), considered the British equivalent of the “Arc”, at Ascot on July 27th. John Gosden said of his champion: “She’s an exceptional athlete and was only operating at 85 per cent of her optimum fitness levels on this occasion. She has only started to come to herself in the last two weeks. I couldn’t be more delighted with her. “