Enable preps for Arc in Group 3 race at Kempton

The Haydock Sprint Cup is the only Group 1 race in Europe on Saturday, but a race over the all-weather track at Kempton will attract more attention.

Enable will prep for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the Group 3 September Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile race over an oval Polytrack course. It might seem like weird placement for one of the best horses of recent years, but it’s not. This is the same race Enable won in 2018 before becoming the eighth horse to win the Arc twice. Her bid to become the first three-time Arc winner failed in 2019, when Enable finished second to Waldgeist over a Longchamp course softer than ideal for her, but owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah and trainer John Gosden returned her to training this year at age 6 for one more run at a third Arc.

The jury is out on whether Enable will prove up to the task. She was beaten more than two lengths by Ghaiyyath in the Eclipse Stakes on July 5, but that was Enable’s first race since the Arc, while Ghaiyyath had been campaigning since the winter. Enable returned July 25 and won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by five lengths but faced only two foes in that contest.

That Enable will win Saturday (post time 9:35 a.m. Eastern – live streaming video and wagering available at DRFBets.com) seems a foregone conclusion: She was 1-5 in fixed-odds antepost wagering as of Thursday, and second choice Prince of Arran rates many notches below an in-form Enable. Gosden in 2017 and 2019 used the Yorkshire Oaks as Enable’s prep for the Arc but had he chosen that route this year, Enable would’ve met Love, the 3-year-old filly currently favored to win the Arc. Love gets weight from the older mare Enable, and Gosden judged it prudent to put off the Love clash until the big race itself in October.

Also in the Arc mix is the world’s top-rated horse, Ghaiyyath, but plans for the rest of his 2020 campaign remain unsettled. Ghaiyyath will run in some combination of the Irish Champion Stakes on Sept. 12, the Arc on Oct. 4, the Champion Sakes on Oct. 17, and the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7.

As for the Haydock Park Sprint Cup (post time 10:35 a.m. Eastern), the six-furlong fixture has Dream of Dreams at the head of the betting markets. The Michael Stoute-trained 6-year-old exits a blistering run in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes over seven furlongs on Aug. 15 at Newbury, a race he won by seven lengths. Hello Youmzain also runs Saturday. He beat Dream of Dreams a head when they met in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.