No Enable fairytale as star fails to place in Paris
HOPES of a fairytale career ending f or Enable and Frankie Dettori sunk in the Paris mud as her bid for an historic third win in the Qatar Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe ended with a first unplaced run in her 19-race career.
The cloying Longchamp mud played its part in derailing the odds- on favourite as she was beaten just over six lengths by Sottsass, who held off German Derby winner In Swoop by a neck.
Also a factor, ironically, was the late withdrawal of Aidan O’Brien’s quartet of runners after his stable got caught up in a remarkable situation where the firm which supplies his feed discovered some of their products had become contaminated by a substance unlicensed in Europe but used to help fatten cattle in the US.
The absence of Mogul, Japan, Serpentine and Sovereign clearly weakened the opposition lining up against Enable but the defection of the last two named also stripped the race of pace-setters.
It meant French champion jockey Pierre- Charles Boudot dictated a dawdle of a pace on eventual third Persian King. The winning time was 7.31 seconds slower than the 2019 edition, run on equally atrocious ground, while the winning time of 2 min 39.30 sec was the slowest since Ivanjica won the 1976 Arc.
Dettori had set his heart on a glorious finale for the six-year-old mare he dotes over but, rather than a sense of devastation, he seemed more resigned as he slipped off Enable’s back and gave her a couple of comforting kisses on the neck.
Dettori said: ‘With the O’Brien horses out I wanted to make the running but she struggled from the beginning. The ground was too deep, it kills her action.’
It also did not help that the floundering Enable was the meat in the sandwich between her stablemate and ultimate seventh Stradivarius and Chachnak, who seemed to aim an unsuccessful bite in her direction, after a concertina effect caused by fourth-placed Gold Trip hanging right.
But Dettori reckoned his goose was already cooked. The 49-yearold, chasing his seventh Arc win, added: ‘ She was second on ground like this last year but she doesn’t like it. She has a beautiful action and she couldn’t do it. It’s sad, we didn’t have the fairytale.
‘She was tired in the closing stages and I was not going to punish her for no reason. I will give her the farewells when we get back to Newmarket.’
Sottsass was an emotional success for Italian jockey Cristian Demuro, whose father died less than a month ago.