We celebrate the fantastic news that Enable will continue racing as a five-year-old and highlight five races we’d like to see John Gosden’s superstar run in during the 2020 campaign.
It was an announcement few were expecting, considering the glittering career Enable has enjoyed. Many expected John Gosden’s super-mare to bow out on her sword, after succumbing to Waldgeist on a boggy afternoon at Longchamp.Yet, on the back of that narrow defeat, where her bid to seal a history-making hat-trick in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe came up short, Teddy Grimthorpe revealed that Enable would remain in training and race on as a six-year-old.
Grimthrope, racing manager to Enable’s owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, told the press on Wednesday, Prince Khalid has decided to keep Enable in training for 2020. She has come out of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in good form and will not race again this year.
There are no plans at all at the moment regarding which races she’ll run in. She’s come out of the Arc in great shape, which gave the Prince the encouragement to take this decision. Hopefully all goes well and she gets the chance to go for a third Arc next year.
Revenge in the Arc will obviously be her seasonal goal, but it would be a surprise if she arrived at Longchamp with just one run under her belt, like she did when injury curtailed her four-year-old campaign. Enable ran three times leading up to the Arc this season and it wasn’t fatigue or a lack of prep which ultimately cost her victory.
While it’s extremely unlikely she would run in all of the races we’re about to list, here are five Group Ones we’d love to see the great Enable run in during the 2020 season.
Coronation Cup (5/6/20 Epsom)
Enable hasn’t appeared at Epsom Downs since her sparkling triumph in the Oaks back in 2017 and it would be wonderful to see the queen of turf make her reappearance at this famous venue. It was in the Oaks where Enable planted herself firmly on the path to stardom, striding clear of her rivals amidst a thunderstorm to open her Classic account.
John Gosden had penciled in the Coronation Cup as a possible return point for Enable in 2018, until she met a set-back and wasn’t seen until September. The Derby meeting seems to have lost a little of it’s magic in recent seasons. An appearance from the great Enable would help revive it’s spark.
Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (17/6/20 Ascot)
With just 10 days between the end of the Derby Festival and the start of Royal Ascot in 2020, it would be quite the stretch for a six-year-old Enable to appear at both meetings. That being said, Enable has never made an appearance during Britain’s premier flat meeting and it would be a shame if Gosden’s queen ended her career without a Royal winner on her CV.
Frankie Dettori’s favourite mount proved she had more than enough pace to win over ten furlongs when defeating Magical in the Coral-Eclipse this season. Enable is two-from-two around this track and it would be a truly momentous occasion to see Enable take in Royal Ascot during her farewell tour in 2020.
Coral-Eclipse Stakes (4/7/20 Sandown)
Again, the turn-around between Royal Ascot and the Coral-Eclipse is fairly sharp, but this historic Group One at Sandown holds a special place in my heart. The Eclipse provides three-year-olds with a first opportunity to take a swing at their elders in Group One company and it would be fantastic to see Enable battle it out with the best of next year’s Classic crop.
Gosden chose the Coral-Eclipse as the scene of Enable’s reappearance in 2019, so it’s possible he could go down the same route next season. Sadly, there was an extremely disappointing three-year-old turn out on that occasion, but there’s a chance a budding superstar could travel to Sandown and take on the great Enable in the 2020 renewal. Maybe even, Pinatubo.
Juddmonte International Stakes (19/8/20 York)
In 2017, and again in 2019, John Gosden decided that the Yorkshire Oaks was the ideal race to prep Enable for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It’s odds-on that Gosden will go down that route again in 2020, but it would be quite the spectacle to see Enable drop down in trip at York and battle it out in the Juddmonte International instead.
The International nearly always produces a race of the season candidate, unlike the Yorkshire Oaks, which has proved to be nothing more than a stroll for Enable on the two occasions she has claimed that prize. We all know Enable stays a mile-and-a-half perfectly well, so there’s no need to stretch her out on her pre-Arc appearance. Enable running in the Juddmonte International is something the world would love to see!
Breeders’ Cup Turf (7/11/20 Keeneland)
Now, we all know that Enable’s campaign will be built around the Arc. All roads lead to Longchamp, as far as Gosden and Prince Khalid are concerned. However, if we were to endure another incredibly wet autumn and the ground was to come up heavy once again, would team Enable throw their star mare into battle on bottomless ground again?
Frankie Dettori, and most of Enable’s avid supporter, were convinced that it was only the ground that allowed Waldgeist to pass Enable this year. Would Enable be strong enough in the finish to repel another mud-lark, with another 12 months of racing under he belt? I’m not so sure. I think if the ground came up heavy at Longchamp again, Enable would be withdrawn.
This dramatic turn of events would open the door for Enable to return to the Breeders’ Cup. Gosden’s mare took her stardom to a truly global scale when she became the first Arc winner to win at the Breeders’ Cup in 2017, defeating Magical in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. What better place for the greatest mare in British racing history to perform her final bow than on one of the world’s grandest stages.