Enable can pass test of the best
TRAINeR John Gosden believes enable might have to produce a ‘career high’ performance to make history at Ascot this afternoon.
Victory for Frankie Dettori’s mount in the King George VI & Queen elizabeth Stakes would see her join Dahlia (1973-74) and Swain (1997-98) as double winners of the £1.25million race.
enable won the 2017 King George but was recovering from a knee injury when last year’s race was run. even though she is a dual Arc winner whose successes include the english and Irish Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Turf, she has arguably never faced as deep a line-up. Some recent King George line-ups have been disappointing but today’s fully justifies the description of vintage.
Opposing enable is Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, hardwicke Stakes winner Defoe, 2017 Japan Cup winner Cheval Blanc, classy French raider Waldgeist and Sir Michael Stoute’s Crystal Ocean, rated the best horse in the world.
The only other horse who would have graced the line-up was Arc runner-up Sea Of Class, whose life was claimed by cancer this week.
Gosden said: ‘I think enable could have to produce a career high. Some of her three-year-old performances were imperious but she will have to be at the top of her game and so will whoever goes to try to win it. It is a great line-up.
‘Frankie is very happy with her and thinks she was back to her best (when winning the eclipse Stakes) at Sandown on her comeback.
‘We hope to see that great turn of foot again but she is being tested against the best around.’
enable beat Crystal Ocean threeand-a-half lengths in the September Stakes at Kempton last season but Crystal Ocean is 5lb better off and produced his own career high when winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
That day Crystal Ocean was a length and a quarter in front of Magical, who went on to finish three-quarters of a length behind enable in the eclipse.
This is no penalty kick and drama could be heightened as Ascot faces possible storms with the track on the edge of an area issued with a Met Office area weather warning.
Centre stage will be enable, who has connected with the racing public like no Flat horse since the unbeatable Frankel, and with in-form Dettori pulling the strings there could be lightning on and off the track.