enable.

​Although it was a mighty battle at Ascot on Saturday between Enable and Crystal Ocean, was I the only one who thought the mare won a shade cosily at the end? Whatever, the real winner on Saturday was the sport of horse racing. A brilliant race, a fair result and the sight of two of the greatest jockeys in the world demonstrating wonderful jockeyship skills. I thought Frankie was absolutely brilliant  and if that ride does not win him a ride of the season award then there is either no justice in the world or we will have witnessed something close to miraculous in the saddle between now and the end of the season, by which I mean November 2nd and Newmarket (if that correct) and not Ascot in October.
Tell me the last time on the flat a jockey won a titanic tussle for a major race, when it was nip and tuck right to the shadow of the winning post, without resorting to the whip? One flick to ask Enable to lengthen and then hands and heels in rhythm with her stride pattern. Masterly. A clear illustration to the dinosaurs who believe horses must be beaten with the whip to generate excitement that finesse and horsemanship makes a more beautiful picture. And James Doyle should not be overlooked. He played his part in a race of excellence, quality and pleasurable, non-controversial, viewing.
As I wrote in a previous piece, if Enable were successful in adding the King George & Queen Elisabeth and the Arc to her already impressive C.V. would she then be afforded the mantle of ‘one of the all-time greats’? It seems to be that this accolade is rarely ascribed to mares. They also rarely are given official ratings that put them on a par with the top colts. If it is because they always receive an allowance for being female so?  If so this is unfair as three-year-old colts receive weight from their elders and yet the likes of Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave receive ratings after winning weight-for-age races that far outnumber any rating Enable is likely to achieve.
Enable is, without doubt, a great racehorse. Yes, nowadays her winning margins are tiny compared to her three-year-old days but if the maxim is true for humans that there is no point getting older if you do not get wiser, then it must also apply to equine athletes. During his stellar career on occasions, usually when the ground was soft, Frankel only got home by the skin of his teeth, beating narrowly horses of lesser ability that the form book and the ratings suggested he should have brushed aside without undue effort. I swear Enable only got down to the urgent stuff on Saturday when it looked to her that Crystal Ocean was serious about finishing in front of her.
Of course, as has recently been proved by Winx in Australia, there is no reason why Enable shouldn’t be kept in training as a six-year-old. I realise Prince Khallid has rewritten his own rule book in keeping Enable in training as long as he has in an attempt to win the unprecedented third Arc, so why not a fourth Arc as Winx was kept in training so she could win a fourth Cox Plate? And wouldn’t that give racing the promotional boost it will need in the new dawn that will be life freed from the thumbscrews of the E.U.?
In fact, was it not refreshing to have so many five-year-olds in the big race on Saturday? The big owner/breeders are without doubt the lifeblood of flat racing but it is beholding on them, in my opinion, to race their best horses for as long as the horses enjoy their racing. If they breed to breed, then the policy of early retirement makes sense. But if they breed to race and to increase the virility of their blood-lines then surely it is incumbent on them to race their top horses to expose their limitations, not to whisk them off to stud to milk them every single million dollars they can get out of them? Three-year-olds that go to stud on the strength of their pedigree, the achievements more of their forebears than themselves, who are retired through injury, will only pass on, if it is the case, their foibles and weaknesses as a racehorse. It is the same with Derby winners that do not win, or even race, after Epsom. We know one of their strengths but we shall never know their limitations until they are passed on in their genes.
I suspect Enable is the greatest race mare since Pretty Polly or Meld. Great race mares rarely breed foals that turn out anywhere near as good as their dams.  So financially it might be worth rolling the dice again next season and seeking that unprecedented third King George & Queen Elisabeth and what would doubtless prove to be an unbeatable for ever more fourth Arc. We can only dream, can’t we?