Enable — ‘The Best Filly I've Ever Ridden'

Proving there is nothing to touch her, Enable pushes her way out of a tricky draw to give Frankie Dettori his fifth Arc

- Marcus Armytage

GREAT is an overused adjective in sport, let alone racing, but Enable joined some of the greatest fillies of all time on Sunday when she added the 96th Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe to her other achievements this summer — and gave her jockey Frankie Dettori a record fifth win in the race

Since she finished third first time out at Newbury this season, nothing has been able to test Enable; not in the Epsom nor Irish Oaks, the King George, the Yorkshire Oaks nor, against the best Europe and Japan had to offer, on Sunday when she came home two and a half lengths clear of Cloth Of Stars and the admirable Ulysses in third.

Whether ground is good or fast, it does not matter. Once Dettori had got her off the rail from his potentially trappy inside draw — a manoeuvre he had accomplished within a couple of furlongs of the start — there was only ever going to be one winner of the 2017 Arc.

She spent the vast majority of the race in third behind Idaho and Order Of St George. When Dettori unleashed her two furlongs out, the result was as instant as it was devastating — once again she was in a different class to her rivals.

SEALED AT THE START

BEFORE the race both trainer John Gosden and Dettori had talked up the potential minefield of stall two. They also discussed how, after the course elbows left, you can get pinned on the rail as the field crosses over to start going right-handed and, if you are there, how the field concertinas on the final bend.