Fresh Enable ready to fly, says Gosden

TRAINER John Gosden hopes a season largely spent on the sidelines can work in Enable’s favour when she defends her Qatar Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe crown tomorrow.

The richest race in Europe, with a prize fund of €5million, promises to be a filly-fest with William Haggas-trained Irish oaks winner Sea of Class the second favourite.

With only one run this year, Enable is the lightestraced of the 19 contenders. It might not have been the path Gosden would have chosen but, with a near-perfect draw in stall 6 and an emphatic preprace victory in Kempton’s September Stakes, you have to search hard for a bookmaker offering Enable at odds-against.

Gosden, who insists Enable’s injury was a minor blood vessel problem that never threatened the filly’s racing career, said: ‘We have had a frustrating year. We were hoping to run in the King George and Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

‘The benefit is that she goes to the Arc fresh. She was getting so angry and frustrated but getting out there for the Kempton run settled her mentally and blew the cobwebs away.

‘It’s like any athlete. You want to get out there and get some form of competition and then you drop your shoulders a bit, relax and get in the zone.’

Enable beat Cloth of Stars, who reopposes, by two and a half lengths last year when giving jockey Frankie Dettori a record fifth Arc win. This year’s Arc is big on numbers but it is hard to make a case for many of the 19-runner line-up.

one of the exceptions is Sea of Class, a daughter of 2009 Arc winner Sea The Stars and granddaughter of 1993 winner Urban Sea and like that duo bred and owned by the Hong Kong-based Tsui family.

Six of the last seven Arcs have been won by a filly or a mare and the one-sided battle of the sexes looks highly likely to continue.