Enable named 2019 Cartier Horse of the Year

Enable was named 2019 Cartier Horse of the Year on Tuesday in London, one of four Cartier winners trained in England by John Gosden.

It was the second time in three years Enable was honored as Europe’s best horse. She won the award as a 3-year-old of 2017 but her shortened 4-year-old campaign in 2018 led to Roaring Lion earning Cartier Horse of the Year.

Enable, denied an historic third straight win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last month by Waldgeist, is scheduled to return for a 6-year-old campaign in 2020. This year, after a delayed start to her season, she won the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks before her runner-up performance in the Arc. In the Arc, she took the lead under jockey Frankie Dettori with a quarter-mile left to race but was run down in the final stages.

Enable also was named Cartier older horse for 2019, as Gosden, who once trained a string in California, took center stage after an incredible season. Too Darn Hot, who was retired during the summer after sustaining an injury, won the Cartier for 3-year-old colt despite failing early in the year to live up to his lofty 2-year-old form. Too Darn Hot eventually won the Irish 2000 Guineas and beat older rivals over one mile in the Sussex Stakes to top his division.

The Gosden-trained Star Catcher is the Cartier 3-year-old filly of 2019 on the strength of Group 1 wins in the Irish Oaks, the Prix Vermeille, and the British Champions Fillies and Mares in October. Her 5-year-old stablemate Stradivarius won the Cartier Stayer award for long-distance runners for the second year in a row.

Five-year-old Stradivarius had a perfect 2018 but was denied another unbeaten season this year when Kew Gardens nipped him in the British Champions Long Distance Cup.

Unbeaten Pinatubo, winter favorite for the 2000 Guineas, was honored as the Cartier 2-year-old colt for 2019, capping a perfect season that at times drew comparisons to the great Frankel with a victory in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. Charlie Appleby trains Pinatubo for Godolphin and those same connections landed the Cartier for top European sprinter with Blue Point, who over a five-day span at the Royal Ascot meeting in June won the King’s Stand Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes before being retired sound.

Quadrilateral, also unbeaten, won the Cartier for 2-year-old filly. Roger Charlton trains Quadrilateral for owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah, who also bred and owns Enable.