Enable impressive in taking Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

It is one thing for a horse to have a truly top-class finishing burst in 1 1/2–mile turf races. It’s another to also possess the athleticism and tactical pace to get into perfect position to use that burst. And it is yet another thing again to have a jockey perfectly suited to deploying this array of weapons.

Enable was the horse with the tools, and Frankie Dettori was just the jockey to use them, as the pair swept to an impressive and satisfying victory Sunday at Chantilly in the Group 1, $5.9 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Enable was an odds-on favorite in the Arc and never looked like she was losing. She broke near the top, raced from second and third position, was held back until after turning into the three-furlong home straight, and put an end to any lingering suspense when Dettori let his filly loose with just less than a quarter-mile left to race. Opening an even bigger lead a furlong out, she crossed the line 2 1/2 lengths clear of Cloth of Stars, who finished well to beat Ulysses by 1 1/4 lengths for second.

“I waited a long time today because I know she stays,” Dettori said. “I asked her, she put four lengths on them, and it was over.”

Enable, who raced only once last year at 2, finished third this past April in a conditions race, her first start as a 3-year-old. She then won a listed race at Chester before beginning a rampage through the European flat-racing season.

Enable won the Epsom Oaks by five lengths, the Irish Oaks by 5 1/2, then stepped up to flatten older male rivals in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, beating Ulysses by 4 1/2 lengths. She won the Yorkshire Oaks by five lengths before making Dettori the only jockey with five Arc wins.

Dettori has ridden in the race 29 times, and scored his first victory in it with Lammtarra in 1995.

“She’s a superstar. She won like I expected,” Dettori said. “She’s an absolute freak.”

Trainer John Gosden won his first Arc in 2015 with Golden Horn and now has won two of the last three. Owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah won the Arc for the fifth time.

“John Gosden is a genius,” Dettori said. “To keep this filly at 100 percent this time of year is fantastic.”

Enable is very unlikely to start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but Gosden suggested she could be back in training for 2018.

“She is special; she’s very special,” Gosden said. “She was well positioned by Frankie in order to show her sheer class and brilliance. I think it would be wrong to run her again this year. To go to the Breeders’ Cup would be too hard on the filly. She’s raced, really, for 10 months in her life. If she’s in great form, we’d consider next year. It would be wonderful to go to the opening of the new Longchamp and try to do it again.”

This was the second year the Arc has been held at Chantilly while its traditional home, Longchamp Racecourse, is renovated. Longchamp will reopen for the 2018 season.

Enable became the fourth 3-year-old filly to win the Arc during the last 10 years, and the result will only stir further discussion about the vast 10-pound weight break 3-year-old fillies get from older-male rivals. Enable carried 121 pounds, while Cloth of Stars and Ulysses toted 131.

Enable is by Nathaniel, whom Gosden trained, and out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Concentric. She was timed in a good 2:28.69 for the 1 1/2 miles over soft ground.

Four-year-old Cloth of Stars ran the best race of his life to finish second, improving on his second-place finish in the Prix Foy last out for master Arc trainer Andre Fabre. Ulysses, who prefers firmer courses, turned in another strong performance to finish third, and long has been aimed at the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Order of St. George, third in this race last year, finished fourth Sunday after tracking his pacemaking stablemate Idaho from second most of the trip.

Behind Order of St. George came 2017 French Derby winner Brametot, Prix Foy winner Dschingis Secret, Iquitos, Idaho, the 3-year-old filly Winter, Zarak, One Foot in Heaven, Doha Dream, Plumatic, Seventh Heaven, the Japanese horse Satono Diamond and his pacemaker Satono Noblesse, Capri, and Silverwave.

Several ran fine, solid races on Sunday at Chantilly, but no one was able to touch Enable.