Breeders' Cup Turf: Short odds, big feat for Enable

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – She is expected to be the strongest favorite of all in the nine Breeders’ Cup races to be run Saturday at Churchill Downs. She may also have the most to overcome.

Enable, whose 4-year-old season has been interrupted by injury and illness, has brought her top-class European form to the U.S. to try to become the first horse to win France’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season. Seven Arc winners have lost in the Turf, while an eighth, Sakhee, finished second in the 2001 Classic at Belmont Park.

Enable is the 4-5 favorite against 12 opponents on Daily Racing Form national handicapper Mike Watchmaker’s morning line. She is the even-money choice on Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia’s line.

For her career, Enable has won 9 of 10 starts, including six Group 1’s, but is only 2 for 2 this year. She had a knee injury that sidelined her for most of the spring and early summer. After winning a Group 3 stakes over Kempton’s synthetic surface in September, Enable was felled for a week by a fever, according to trainer John Gosden. Still, at less than 100 percent she was able to fend off Sea of Class by a neck and win the Arc for a second straight year, becoming just the eighth horse to accomplish that feat.

“I’d prefer to have brought her here off the campaign of last year, which was absolutely smooth,” Gosden said Wednesday at Churchill Downs. “Yes, she won five Group 1’s [last year]. I’d like to have come here on the crest of the wave. She’s not had an easy year. She’s been formidably strong in her mind to come through it and to be here today.”

Gosden said owner Prince Khalid Abdullah of Juddmonte Farms wanted to run Enable in the Breeders’ Cup, and Gosden said, “The filly was in good order and ready to come.”

On Wednesday, Enable cantered once around Churchill’s turf course under regular rider Frankie Dettori, and Gosden was happy with the way Enable got over the ground.

That was before the rain began falling at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday. As much as three inches of rain was forecast for Wednesday into Thursday. Dry conditions were expected Friday and Saturday.

“She’d be very happy on the ground the way it is right now,” said Gosden, who is winless with seven runners in the Turf. “If there’s a bit of rain, fine. If it becomes a massive amount of rain, we’ll see. This course drains pretty well, I’m told.”

Enable will break from post 2 in a field of 13 that includes last year’s upset winner, Talismanic, and his Andre Fabre-trained stablemate Waldgeist.

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Waldgeist, who won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in July, raced in traffic and did well to finish fourth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Enable, in the Arc. Talismanic was 13th in the Arc.

Richard Lambert, part of Fabre’s traveling team, said Talismanic will prefer this course to the Longchamp course on Arc Day, but would not like it too soft. Waldgeist would have “no problem” handling soft ground, Lambert said.

Aidan O’Brien has won the BC Turf six times, including four of the last seven. This year, he sends out Magical, who was 10th in the Arc and came back to win the Group 1 Champion Stakes against fillies at Ascot on Oct. 20, and the 3-year-old Hunting Horn, 16th in the Arc.

Channel Maker won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic over soft ground at Belmont, his third consecutive strong performance.

“He was super sharp going into the last couple of races, and he’s doing fine now,” trainer Bill Mott said.

After dead-heating with Channel Maker in the Bowling Green at Saratoga, Glorious Empire beat him in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer. Glorious Empire arrived by van at Churchill Downs at 2 a.m. Wednesday and still made it to the track for a 1 1/8-mile gallop later that morning.

“I couldn’t be happier with him training-wise,” trainer Chucky Lawrence II said. “I’d prefer top of the ground, but we all have to run in it and see who likes it.”

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Robert Bruce, the Arlington Million winner, and Sadler’s Joy, the 2017 Sword Dancer winner, finished second and third behind Channel Maker in the Joe Hirsch. Both horses would prefer firm ground over soft. Hi Happy, who beat Sadler’s Joy in the Grade 1 Man o’ War, is another who would not like the course to be too soft.

Liam the Charmer, 2 for 2 this year, including the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at Santa Anita, is Southern California’s lone representative.

“This will be his third race of his form cycle,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “He seems like he’s enjoying his time here. He’s got a puncher’s chance for sure.”

Arklow, a two-time stakes winner this summer and the runner-up in the Grade 3 Sycamore on Oct. 18 at Keeneland, and the Brazilian-bred Quarteto de Cordas, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race winner in Brazil, round out the field.