FRANKIE WINS
Dettori hails fab filly Enable as she holds on for dramatic win to seal his sixth French triumph
ENABLE, the filly Frankie Dettori says he loves more than wife Catherine, made sure their affair would last for ever with an historic and dramatic win in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Longchamp needed a brilliant renewal of the most prestigious race in Europe after the £ 120million, two- year redevelopment of the Paris racecourse and Enable and Dettori delivered it as they clung on for victory by a short neck from Sea of Class.
The bare statistics of the race are impressive enough. Enable’s win was a sixth success for Dettori, who was already the most successful rider in Arc history, and a second successive victory for his mount, owned by Khaled Abdullah.
Success also meant the odds- on favourite became only the seventh back-to-back winner in the history of the race. All was delivered on the back of an injury and illness- disrupted season which left Enable ‘only 85 per cent’, according to her trainer John Gosden.
But this race was not about just one filly. Had Sea of Class, trained by William Haggas, been better drawn she might well have won. Starting wide from stall 15 in the 19-runner line-up, jockey James Doyle had to employ daring tactics on a filly that needs to be held up for a late run.
Only one rival was behind Sea of Class entering the home straight but after weaving through the field she would have won in another stride.
Dettori said: ‘I can’t believe it. It was my 30th Arc and it’s probably the most nervous I’ve been. I waited as long as I could. I passed the 300-metre pole and said, “Let’s go girl”. The trademark turn of foot was there and she put the race to bed but the poor girl was tired in the last 50 yards.
‘She’d had 11 months off and only had one prep race and that was a canter around Kempton. She was not the Enable of last year but she has got the job done. I just put my hands down and tried to get the last drop of energy out of her and tried to get her head down on the line.
‘She was only the seventh horse to win back-to-back Arcs. It put almighty pressure on all of us. The world was behind me and everyone wanted her to win. You do feel the pressure trying to get it right. I was not riding a 10-1 shot and it is the most important race in the world.’
Having dealt with a knee injury which had kept Enable off the course this season until winning the September Stakes last month, Gosden revealed the filly had since suffered another health scare.
The trainer, who also won the 2015 Arc with Dettori-ridden Golden Horn, said: ‘It has been a nightmare year. This was not a normal preparation. You are not meant to come into the Arc off just one run on the all-weather.
‘She also had a tiny little hiccup between Kempton and here which I did not need, a slight temperature.
It settled down. I had to back off a little. Her blood was not 100 per cent. I was coming here on the minimum and then she missed some more work. That is tough.
‘It was a little bit of catch-up and it showed. She did it on sheer guts and tenacity. The last 100 metres were an eternity for myself, the jockey and the filly.’
Those final few agonising strides passed all too quickly for Haggas as he watched Sea of Class eat up the deficit in an attempt to win a race previously landed by her sire Sea The Stars in 2009 and grandmother Urban Sea in 1993.
Haggas said: ‘It was just unfortunate. We needed another five metres. Let’s hope she can put it right next year and that John retires Enable.’
He might not get his wish, with Gosden leaving open the possibility of Enable racing on.
The fact Haggas later won the Prix De La Foret with 47-1 One Master might have dulled the pain but only briefly. Haggas’s wife Maureen, the daughter of legendary jockey Lester Piggott, was fighting back the tears when she said: ‘When we got the draw I rang my father and said what do we do and he said, “Don’t change your tactics and pray”.’
What had looked a race of two outstanding horses went to script.
Third was 2017 runner-up Cloth of Stars, just ahead of his Andre Fabretrained stablemate Waldgeist. Capri in fifth was the best of Aidan O’Brien’s five runners.
A good day for Britain also saw wins for Michael Dods-trained Mabs Cross in the Prix de l’Abbaye, Saeed bin Suroor’s Royal Marine in the Prix Jean Luc Lagardere and Charlie Appleby’s Wild Illusion in the Prix de l’Opera.