Enable looks solid as a rock in Arc

Go ahead, poke and prod, but don’t be surprised if you’re unable to find holes in Enable.

The chance to play against an even-money favorite in an 18-horse Group 1 race absolutely should motivate bettors to probe Enable for soft spots. They’re not easy to find, and Enable stands an excellent chance of giving trainer John Gosden his second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and owner Khalid Abdullah his fifth.

Enable has turned in the top 1 1/2-mile performances in Europe this year. She has shown her best over the sort of soft ground she’s expected to encounter in the Arc, and she has the tactical versatility to help four-time Arc-winning jockey Frankie Dettori steer clear of trouble. It’s almost unfair that Enable as a 3-yearold filly gets a 10-pound weight break from her older male rivals.

Whether or not the Arc proves a mere coronation will be known a few minutes after 10:05 a.m. Eastern, post time for the $5.9 million race, the third of six on an all-Group 1 card Sunday at Chantilly Racecourse.

The Arc traditionally is held at Longchamp and returns next fall following a two-year absence for renovations.

First post Sunday is 8:10 a.m. Eastern as the card begins with the Marcel Boussac for 2-yearold fillies and the Jean-Luc Lagardere for 2-year-old colts and fillies. Both are Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In races, the Boussac linked to the Juvenile Fillies Turf, the Lagardere to the Juvenile Turf. The Prix de l’Opera, immediately following the Arc, is a Win and You’re In for the Filly and Mare Turf. The Prix de l’Abbaye and the Prix de la Foret, which could yield a BC Turf Sprint or Mile starter, wrap things up.

Gosden won the 2015 Arc with Golden Horn, and he and Abdullah, who races in North America as Juddmonte Farms, came the year before with another excellent 3-year-old filly, Taghrooda. Like Enable, Taghrooda won the Epsom Oaks before beating older males in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. She then ran second in the Yorkshire Oaks, a race that Enable won handily, in her final pre-Arc start in August.

In the final analysis, Enable’s chances for victory in the Arc might be better than Taghrooda’s: Where Taghrooda’s strong Arc performance produced a third-place finish, Enable faces nothing like Treve and Flintshire, the pair that defeated her predecessor.

Ulysses has put together the second-best campaign among Arc starters, but Enable mauled him by 4 1/2 lengths in the King George, and in addition to her 10-pound weight advantage, the filly copes better with soft going than does Ulysses, who is aimed at the BC Turf.

The Chantilly course officially was rated soft Friday. Cool, damp air won’t dry out wet autumn ground, and another round of scattered rain is forecast Sunday.

Enable simply adapts to conditions. She set her own pace and aired in the Yorkshire Oaks, her final Arc prep, but looked more comfortable chasing a target in her other major wins. The only concern regarding Enable is the length of her campaign: Her first race came on April 21 and she has raced once more than Taghrooda during her 2014 season.

Three-year-old fillies have won the Arc three times in nine years, and there is another good one running Sunday named Winter, one of five entrants for trainer Aidan O’Brien, who won this race last year with Found while sweeping the top three places. Order of St. George, last year’s third-place finisher, is back again, and while he best suits two-mile races, Winter must show she can stay 1 1/2 miles. Winter, ridden by Ryan Moore, comfortably stretched top-class form at one mile to 1 1/4 miles in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes, and missed training gave her an excuse for a surprising lastout loss in the Matron Stakes. Among O’Brien’s other three, Capri has a better chance than Idaho and Seventh Heaven, but with five entrants, Team O’Brien could make things tricky for Enable.

The German horse Dschingis Secret has gotten solid betting support after winning his Arc trial, the Prix Foy, and because he relishes soft going, but there’s little suggesting he can handle the likes of Enable. The Prix Foy runner-up, Cloth of Stars, pulled a worse trip in the race, and though 12 furlongs is a question, he has more room to improve Sunday than Dschingis Secret at three times the price.

Zarkava won the 2008 Arc as a 3-year-old filly, and her son Zarak has appeal if not as an outright upsetter then as an exotics partner for Enable. Not the soundest horse, Zarak has been freshened since July 2 by trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre for one big run, and his second to the elite Almanzor over soft ground at Chantilly in the 2016 French Derby stirs interest.

Brametot won the 2017 French Derby but all evidence points to that race coming in well below standard this year. Brametot fell flat in his one subsequent start, a fifth-place finish Aug. 15.

Satono Noblesse will help make the pace for his stablemate Satono Diamond, but the long Japanese quest for an Arc win probably washed away with a wet French autumn. Satono Diamond needs good ground for a top race, but the filly, however, does not. Short price be damned – she is ready, willing, and Enable.