Enable is the outstanding contender for Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe over 2400m at Chantilly with her 46-year-old rider Frankie Dettori looking for his fifth victory in Europe’s richest and most prestigious race.
The three-year-old filly with huge ears and a substantial, powerful physique has won four G1’s on her last four starts by a total of 20 lengths. All those sparkling victories came over the Arc distance and included a thrashing of fellow three-year-old fillies in the Oaks when at Epsom she ignored thunder and lightening overhead and just did her job in the businesslike manner for which she is increasingly celebrated.
Bred and owned by Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms – like the imperious Frankel a few years back – she went on to win the Irish Oaks before sweeping aside older G1 rivals – including perhaps Sunday’s most potent threat Ulysses – in late July’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
As to how good Enable is – supplemented into the field this week – Dettori says: “She’s a stayer with a pretty fantastic change of gears but don’t ask me exactly how I rate her compared to other horses I’ve ridden. She needs to win the Arc first, then maybe I’ll tell you!” As far as Sunday is concerned, he says: “I would prefer to have a lead but Enable is sensible enough to go from the front.”
And ride her from the front Dettori did for her latest start when she never stopped bossing her rivals on a slow surface in the Yorkshire Oaks at York in August. Trainer John Gosden – who directed Golden Horn to Arc glory in 2015 – says: “One of her great qualities is that she can act on any ground. She’s showed that time and again and has done everything right in her lead-up work.”
However there is no such thing as an easy Arc and former race-winning trainer Nicolas Clement (he won with Saumarez in 1990) sees a possible chink in Enable’s armour: “She is fantastic but she’s ran through the summer and for me it is important to have a fresh horse.”
Nonetheless a busy season didn’t stop Found pioneering an incredible one-two-three for trainer Aidan O’Brien this time last year and at Tuesday’s forfeit stage the Irish maestro was responsible for seven of the 19 remaining candidates with unanswered questions including which one Ryan Moore will ride.
O’Brien’s possible raiding party include 2015 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase winner Highland Reel, recent gritty G1 Doncaster St Leger winner Capri and and super-talented Winter, a quadruple G1 winning filly this year over shorter distances.
The prospects of French-trained horses keeping their most spectacular prize at home seem to rest with dual G1 winner Brametot, as famous for his sleepy action from the gates as his late surges and the Aga Khan’s Zarak who arrives here fresh off a break since a storming late charge to win July’s G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on his first venture over this distance.
Dual Arc winning trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre says: “This has been Zarak’s target since August. He worked smartly at Chantilly this week and I have him as well as I could possibly hope.”
Twice in Arc history has the winner been trained in Germany and they have a live outsider in Arc trial winner Dschingis Secret, a first ride in the race for Adrie de Vries and from the bang in-form Cologne-based stable of Markus Klug.
Soft conditions are ideal for them whilst supporters of Japan’s Satono Diamond are screaming for drying ground.
Conditions are currently soft, with more rain possible for later in the week though Chantilly’s sand-based surface does mean it dries quicker than Longchamp where the Arc will return next year.
Other simulcast races include the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye, the famous 1000m speed test. British raider Marsha won this last year and bagged another G1 with a spectacular late charge at York in August. Jockey Luke Morris says: “She’s in great order at home and I’m hopeful she can repeat last year’s win provided the ground doesn’t get too testing.”
