By George, it’s Frankie
Dettori wins the best race of year on Enable
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes has had a knack of producing great races and if Grundy versus Bustino, the 1975 vintage, was widely considered the race of the 20th century, yesterday’s epic encounter between Enable and Crystal Ocean will surely be a contender for the accolade this century.
Races described as “great” beforehand rarely live up to the hype but this did in spine-tingling fashion as the two highest-rated turf horses in the world went stride for stride, never separated by more than a head, for the full 2½ furlongs of Ascot’s straight.
But John Gosden’s mare, winning her ninth Group One race and her second King George, simply refused to lie down and, in the last few strides, the 8-15 favourite extended the margin of her superiority to a neck in a race that Frankie Dettori, the winning rider, described as the “hardest Group One race” of his career.
That was partly because even he feels the pressure and responsibility of riding what is essentially a national treasure and, unlike last month’s Eclipse, which went like clockwork, for much of the race it did not go to script.
Drawn on the wide outside in stall 11, Dettori could not get Enable in and the only way to do that and save ground was to drop back. With Aidan O’Brien’s string of three pacemakers setting a strong gallop for his Derby winner, Anthony Van Dyck, in fourth, Dettori soon found himself third last instead of near the front where he usually rides her.
By contrast Crystal Ocean, the highest-rated horse in the world before yesterday, had a much better position in fifth, two off the rail and exactly where James Doyle wanted him.
But, crucially, by the time they swept round the phalanx of retreating Ballydoyle pacemakers into the straight, Enable was on her great adversary’s hind quarters and when they straightened up, with one smack, Dettori had engaged the mare in battle – a manoeuvre that did little to improve the watching Gosden’s heart rate.
From there on it was toe to toe, a proper heavyweight contest with no certain winner until the last 50 yards. “She headed me but I got back at her at the furlong marker,” Doyle confirmed on the gallant runner-up, whose return to unsaddle was greeted by a cheer normally reserved for great winners.
Much has been made of jockeys going overboard with the whip at the end of valuable races but there was a first prize of £550,000 on the line here and, after that initial smack, Dettori never picked up his whip again because, as he pointed out, Enable kept responding.
“What hasn’t she won?” he asked after winning the race for the sixth time. “We’re on the road to Longchamp [where she will seek to become the first horse to win three Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes.] It was an amazing race.
“They went very fast and I wanted to get a bit more forward. I wasn’t that comfortable and I wanted to get on Crystal Ocean’s tail. I jumped him at the top of the straight which, I think, caught him a bit by surprise, and then he has fought back.
“I was riding on instinct [not hitting her] and I always thought I was holding him. She is an amazing, extraordinary horse. She has the ability, she’s courageous and she’s uncomplicated. I love her and let’s enjoy her. In all my career it’s the hardest Group One I ever had. Now I deserve an ice cream.”
“I think we start with the draw,” Gosden reflected afterwards. “When you’re drawn wide, it’s a problem. You’ve got to get in, and Frankie was in the position of looking to get in and he’s four wide. Then he drops back a bit and he’s three wide. He didn’t want to go around Swinley Bottom three wide so he drops back again and he’s two wide.
“He’s well off Crystal Ocean and in the end I think that affected how he rode the race. Then she carried him back into the race between the five and the four and suddenly I thought, my God, he’s moving rather early. So I’ve given him a ticking off already! I said, ‘You hit the front too soon!’
“Then he hit the front and Crystal Ocean, magnificent horse that he is, comes back at her and gets his head in front and then you have a proper race and she comes back at him again. For a crowd-exciting moment, you couldn’t ask for more than for the best older horse and the best older filly to take each other on in a race of that quality.
“But she said no, I’m going to win this race. So much of this is mental strength in horses. She showed it and he showed it today.”
Khalid Abdullah bred Frankel, now he has Enable. “Great races are never made by one horse,” his racing manager, Lord Grimthorpe, said in tribute to the runner-up. “But she toughed it out and won like a champion.”
Oisin Murphy, the rider of sixthplaced Cheval Grand, could not offer higher praise for the winner as he said: “Enable is the best since Frankel.”
French horse Waldgeist ran the race of his life, a length and three-quarters back in third, while the cleverly ridden Salouen, who picked off some tired rivals up the straight, stayed on for fourth a further seven lengths away.
But, yesterday, they and even Anthony Van Dyck, who beat only one horse home, were rendered extras for the crowd scenes in what was otherwise an epic dominated by racing’s leading lady.
Speaking about Crystal Ocean, who
‘I love her and let’s enjoy her. It’s the hardest Group One I ever had. Now I deserve an ice cream’
has now finished a close second in the race two years running, his trainer Sir Michael Stoute said: “He made it entertaining for the crowd, didn’t he? He doesn’t know how to give in, does he? He’s just so brave, he gives everything. At the half-furlong pole I thought, ‘Will I?’ I never got too excited about it but I thought, will he?’”
Doyle, who was also touched off by Enable in last year’s Arc on Sea The Class, added: “I’ve never experienced coming second in a race and getting as loud a cheer as the winner. They really do love him – he wears his heart on his sleeve – and what a run.
“It was a great race. I thought we could be in business when we headed her back but she just digs in and away she goes. Credit to my fellow – he left every inch of his heart on the track out there.”
‘Credit to my fellow – he left every inch of his heart on the track out there’