On the strength of two wins from as many starts this season, wonder mare Enable measures up as a 1-5 favorite from overseas betting services to win the Aug. 22 Yorkshire Oaks (G1) in what’s her likely penultimate career race.
Connections had a choice of races between the Oaks at England's York Racecourse and the Aug. 21 Juddmonte International (G1) against males, settling on the former given its preferred 1 1/2-mile distance. Enable, a 5-year-old John Gosden trainee, will be prepping for a historic third straight win in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe later this fall.
Enable’s victories this season have come in the July 6 Coral-Eclipse (G1) at Sandown and in a memorable duel with Crystal Ocean — the anticipated Juddmonte International favourite — in Ascot’s July 27 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1).
“She has had a nice easy time since the King George,” Gosden told the Racing Post this week. She just did a breeze on her own with Frankie [Dettori] on Saturday – into a strong headwind, so they just did a nice quiet bit. She is out there enjoying herself, looking well and moving nicely.”
In 2017, at age 3, Enable used a King George victory over older rivals as a springboard to win her first try at the Yorkshire Oaks. She successfully finished the campaign just more than a month later in the Arc.
In 2018, the Prince Khalid Abdullah runner didn’t begin her season until winning the September Stakes (G3) to prep for a second Arc win. Of course, Enable then went on to take the Breeders’ Cup Turf as well.
There haven’t been discussions this year about similarly returning Enable to the U.S. for the Nov. 2 Turf at Santa Anita Park, with the Arc likely to be her career finale.
“She’s a lovely filly and done extremely well this year,” Gosden told the Racing Post. “She really enjoys her training and her racing, which obviously makes the trainer’s job a lot easier. Everyone is interested in her when she is out (to train).
“So we're very lucky to have a filly like that.”
In all, Enable, a daughter of Nathaniel, has won 12 of 13 starts and 11 races consecutively.
