September race at Kempton to serve as Enable's Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe preparation
John Gosden put winning an unprecedented third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Enable ahead of all else on Monday as the world’s best racehorse was ruled out of a visit to York next week to wait for a race on Kempton’s all-weather track on September 5.
By spurning the 2017 and 2019 route to the Arc, via the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, where Enable faced an anticipated clash with Aidan O’Brien’s 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner Love, connections have chosen the 2018 blueprint when she won the Arc after contesting the Group 3 September Stakes.
Enable’s quest for a third Arc last year narrowly failed when she was caught 50 yards from the line by Waldgeist. This year the six-year-old has finished second in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes and then clinched a record-breaking third triumph in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
Gosden wants to follow a similar template to get the mare to Longchamp on October 4 in the best possible shape on October 4, for what will probably be the final start of her career.
“The Eclipse, three weeks before the King George, was perfect timing as a prep race,” said Gosden. “The Yorkshire Oaks at over six weeks before the Arc does not suit nearly so well as the September Stakes.
“We have successfully used this before as a prep race in 2018. We did not wish to travel to Longchamp three weeks before the Arc for the traditional French trials. We only wished to run her once before the Arc and the attempt to win a third Arc is the only reason she stayed in training this year. Hence this plan.”
Enable has won 14 of her 17 starts and her prize-money haul of £10.7 million is a record for a filly or mare in Europe.
Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, said: “This is about timing and trying to do absolutely the right thing for her to get her to the Arc in as good a condition as we can. Three or four weeks is a good preparation time.”
Grimthorpe said Franconia, a dual listed winner nowhere near the same league as Enable, could stand in for her stablemate in the Yorkshire Oaks if connections resist the option of the Group 3 Prix Minerve at Deauville on Sunday.
Popular chaser Croco Bay, the 13-year-old who won the Grand Annual Chase at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, suffered a fatal injury when unseating his rider in a chase at Southwell on Monday. He won seven times for owner Lady Jane Grosvenor and trainer Ben Case.
