Enable and stablemates begin local preparations

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Enable, the sensational filly who will likely be favored against the boys in Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, made her first visit to the Churchill Downs track Monday morning. She didn’t see very much of it.

Enable, along with the other John Gosden-trained Breeders’ Cup runners – Roaring Lion (Classic) and Legends of War (Juvenile Turf Sprint) – simply jogged in the one-mile chute around 7:30 a.m. after being released from quarantine.

“She was a little bit nervous but after one lap she was all right,” said Imran Shadwani, Enable’s exercise rider. “She was enjoying it, really.”

Shadwani said Enable seems to have come out of her neck victory in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 7 in good order.

“She just woke up after the Arc,” Shadwani said. “That was her first grass race after one year.”

Enable has raced only twice this year. Her first race was a Group 3 win over a synthetic surface at Kempton on Sept. 8, 11 months after she won the 2017 Arc de Triomphe.

Shadwani said course condition shouldn’t be an issue for Enable and he expressed confidence the filly will be successful on Saturday.

“She should do it nicely,” he said. “She should win. She’s got such a big heart and she’s pretty fit. She’s a star anyway.”

Enable, a 4-year-old daughter of Nathaniel owned by Juddmonte Farms, has won 9 of 10 career starts. She has six Group 1 victories, including back-to-back victories in the Arc.