Enable named 2017 Cartier Horse of the Year

The 3-year-old filly Enable was named the Cartier Horse of the Year for 2017 in an awards ceremony Tuesday night in London.

Once-started last year at age 2, Enable began her season in minor events at Newbury and Chester, but went on to capture five Group 1 races in a row for trainer John Gosden and owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah, who races as Juddmonte Farms in North America. Enable won the English Oaks and the Irish

Oaks before beating older horses and males in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. She went on to easily win the Yorkshire Oaks and capped her campaign with a definitive victory the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Enable, who stays in training for 2018, beat out fellow Horse of the Year finalists Cracksman, Ribchester, and Ulysses.

Enable also won the Cartier Award for leading 3-year-old filly in Europe, while Gosden trained a second Cartier winner, Cracksman, who was named the leading 3-year-old of 2017 after ending his season with a dazzling win in the Group 1 Champion Stakes.

Ulysses, who was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Turf because of lameness, was named the top older horse of 2017. Ulysses scored his big-race wins in the Group 1 Eclipse at Sandown Park and in the Group 1 International at York, both over about 1 1/4 miles.

Harry Angel was named champion sprinter of 2017, while Order of St George was champion stayer for the second year in a row.

Order of St George was one of three Cartier winners for trainer Aidan O’Brien, who also swept the 2-year-old awards. U S Navy Flag failed to run to form on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but Group 1 wins in the Middle Park and the Dewhurst made him champion 2-year-old male. Happily, who had a terrible trip when last in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, was champion 2-year-old filly.