Enable (GB)

“A magnificent mare. A mare in a million. A mare in ten million.”

So proclaimed course announcer Richard Hoiles as 6-year-old Enable (GB) won her unprecedented third QIPCO King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1) at Ascot July 25, 2020. Covering about 1 1/2 miles on the turf, and this year run during a driving rain, the race drew only two competitors willing to face the mare who in recent years has dominated European middle-distance turf racing.

Enable won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2017 and 2019 before the historic third victory. An injury that sidelined her for 11 months kept her out of the race in 2018.

After winning her debut in November 2016, her only start at 2, Enable next was third in her first start at 3 in April 2017. Then came the magic; racing in England, France, Ireland and the United States, she reeled off 12 straight wins, 10 of them Group/Grade 1. Her first Group 1 win came in just her fourth start, the Investec Oaks. In November 2018, in her only US start and the third start since her injury, Enable defeated a dozen international rivals in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), winning by three-quarters of a length after battling through the stretch.

During the 12-race streak Enable won back-to-back editions of France’s premier race, the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1), in 2017 and 2018. She just missed winning the Arc in 2019 for a record third time when she lost the lead late to Waldgeist (GB), a male she had previously beaten in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, the 2018 Arc, and the 2019 King George. After an eight-month break, she started her 6-year-old season with a second in the 2020 Coral-Eclipse (Gr 1), a race she won the previous year. Next came the momentous third win in the King George, followed by yet another graded win, the Unibet September Stakes (G3). Through 18 starts, she has 15 wins, the two seconds, and the lone third for earnings of more than $14 million.

Enable’s trophy case features five Cartier awards, the European equivalent of North America’s Eclipse Award: Horse of the Year (2017 and 2019); top 3-year-old filly (2017); and top older horse (2018 and 2019). Only Frankel (GB), undefeated in 14 starts, has as many Cartier awards. Both champions were raced by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud and bred by the prince’s Juddmonte Farms.

Enable is trained by English-born John Gosden, whose 3,000-plus wins worldwide include more than 100 Grade/Group 1s. More than 500 wins came during 10 years of training in California when he first opened his own stable. His charges have earned 17 Cartier awards, and he has four additional Breeders’ Cup wins: 2009 Juvenile Turf (G2) (Pounced); 2008 Classic (G1) (Raven’s Pass); 2008 Juvenile Turf (listed) (Donativum [GB]); and 1984 Mile (G1) (Royal Heroine [IRE]).