John Gosden compared Frankie Dettori to an artist with a blank canvas before the four-runner King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday and if that is the case then Enable, the odds-on favourite, is surely his inspiration and muse. Dettori will set out against two opponents from Aidan O’Brien’s stable in Ireland trying to paint a picture that does his beloved partner justice.
There will probably be tears to complement the usual flying dismount if Enable gets the job done and so becomes the first horse to win the King George three times. There are usually tears from her rider when Enable wins these days, perhaps because Dettori knows that every victory could be the last in their four hugely successful seasons together. And all through that time, a sense has grown that when Enable leaves the stage her rider may decide that the time is right to do the same.
Before Enable came along, Dettori’s highest tally of Group One wins on an individual horse was the five he registered on both Fantastic Light and Daylami, around the turn of the century and in the glory years of the Godolphin operation. Enable has already provided Dettori with as many successes at the highest level as the pair of them put together. Saturday’s King George would be an 11th Group One for what has been an unbroken partnership since Dettori took over for Enable’s third career start in the Cheshire Oaks in May 2017. That would also be one more Group One success than Tom Queally enjoyed in the same colours of Prince Khalid Abdullah aboard the incomparable Frankel.
But if it arrives, it will have been quite a long time in coming, because Enable’s 10th Group One win was as long ago as August 2019, in the Yorkshire Oaks. An emotional Dettori said he was “crying with happiness” after an easy victory at 1-4 to mark what was expected to be Enable’s last appearance on a British racecourse.
No one thought she would be lining up for an attempt to win a record third King George in 11 months’ time. Then again, no one thought they would be racing in front of empty grandstands, either.
The unprecedented third win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe which was expected to send Enable off into retirement at Prince Khalid’s stud slipped through their grasp, as Waldgeist ran her down at Longchamp. Her owner, to everyone’s delight but Dettori’s more than anyone, then decided to try to make it three out of four in Paris in October 2020. Enable then produced a slightly sub-par run behind Ghaiyyath in the Eclipse just under three weeks ago after nine months away from the track.
There has been a ready-made excuse for both defeats (not that any is really needed when a horse has 10 Group Ones in the bank already). Enable was too close to a strong pace on rain-softened ground in Paris, and she was “only 80%” for the Eclipse according to Gosden.
But the track, trip and going are perfect on Saturday and Gosden is sure that Enable will be at, or close to, her peak. If she fails to justify a starting price of around 1-2 for the third race in a row, there are likely to be only two plausible reasons why. One is that, at six years of age, her brilliance is starting to wane. The other is pilot error, in what seems sure to be a game of four-dimensional chess from the first stride to the last.
York
12.20 Final Voyage 12.55 Queen’s Order 1.30 Proud Archi 2.05 Golden Hind 2.40 Aspetar 3.15 Orbaan 3.50 Round The Island 4.25 Tabaahy 5.00 Lost My Sock 5.35 Bay Of Whispers
Newmarket
12.30 Line Of Reason 1.05 Theotherside 1.40 New Mandate 2.15 Indie Angel 2.50 Declaring Love 3.25 Turntable 4.00 Breath Caught 4.35 Labeebb 5.10 Baasem
Ascot
12.40 Shanghai Rock 1.15 Isle Of May 1.50 Saint Lawrence 2.25 Shelir (nap) 3.00 Great Ambassador 3.35 Sovereign 4.10 Media Storm 4.45 Star Cactus 5.20 Scaramanga
Doncaster
3.45 Credible 4.20 Raadobarg 4.55 Al Tarmaah 5.30 Devil’s Angel 6.00 Dick Datchery 6.30 Reviette (nb) 7.00 Fanzone 7.30 Red For All 8.00 Sea Of Style 8.30 Almareekh
The first would be unpleasant enough for Dettori to contemplate. The second would be unthinkable for the finest big-race rider of the past 30 years. Anthony Van Dyck is a late non-runner, but O’Brien’s two remaining contenders are a complete contrast in running styles, with an out-and-out stayer in Sovereign and a speed horse in Japan. Dettori must find an ideal middle way to beat them both.
If he can, the most successful and emotionally charged partnership of Dettori’s career will be refreshed before a return to Longchamp in October, when a crowd of at least 5,000 should be in attendance to feed Dettori’s sense of theatre and give the moment the intensity it will deserve. If he can’t, who knows?
