2018 Eclipse Awards: Enable

What Enable accomplished in a brief three-race campaign in 2018 made her one of the most celebrated racehorses in the world. What Enable did at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, in the last of those races, gave her a unique place in American racing history.

Enable won the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, the nation’s richest grass race, a month after winning the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. Enable became the first horse to win both races in the same year since the BC Turf was launched in 1984. Seven horses had tried before Enable.

The accomplishment has made Enable a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2018.

A homebred for Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms and trained by John Gosden, Enable began 2018 as a superstar. She was honored in late 2017 as the Cartier Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly in Europe for a campaign that included six consecutive stakes wins, culminating with the Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly. The last five of those wins were in Group 1 races.

At the start of 2018, Enable was expected to run in late spring, but a knee injury was detected in early May that put a stop to those plans. Enable resumed training in early summer and recovered quickly. Gosden chose the Group 3 September Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on the all-weather surface at Kempton Park, outside of London, on Sept. 8 for Enable’s return.

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Ridden by regular rider Frankie Dettori, Enable had three rivals, notably Royal Ascot winner Crystal Ocean. There was not much of a battle between the two. Enable led throughout and pulled clear to win comfortably by 3 1/2 lengths. A return trip to the Arc was on for Oct. 7.

In 2018, the Arc was back at Longchamp after a two-year absence while the historic course had its primary grandstand replaced. Interest in the race was high, and so were the number of bets on Enable, the even-money favorite in a field of 19.

Enable took her customary position near the front and took the lead with more than a furlong remaining. The English filly Sea of Class gave her a stern test in the final furlong before Enable held on to win by a neck.

By mid-October, Gosden announced Enable was bound for Churchill Downs. Enable was 4-5 in a field of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which was run on a good course.

Fifth early, Enable was as far as five lengths off the pace before she made a wide move on the turn to reach contention. Leading by a head with a furlong to go, Enable held off a sustained threat from Magical, another European filly, to prevail by three-quarters of a length. Dettori said after the race that Enable struggled on the surface.

A few weeks after the Breeders’ Cup, Juddmonte Farms announced Enable would stay in training in 2019.