Enable shows her class in Eclipse Stakes

She caught the great mare making her first start after an eight-month layoff at a distance short of her best and yet Magical still was unable to beat Enable.

Four-year-old Magical got two pounds from 5-year-old Enable in the 10-furlong Eclipse Stakes on Saturday at Sandown Racecourse and still fell three-quarters of a length short. Magical had a pacemaker, Hunting Horn, and four races this season to Enable’s zero, but it was Enable who won her 10th race in a row. Eight of those starts came in Group or Grade 1's and the streak includes two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphs and a Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Enable last fall became the first horse to pull off the Arc – BC Turf double in the same season and is back in training this season to try to win an unprecedented third Arc, a goal that seemed well within the scope of hope following Saturday’s heroics. Enable hadn’t started at a distance as short as the Eclipse’s 1 1/4 miles since April 2017 and might, according to trainer John Gosden, have been only three-quarters of the way to peak fitness. That appeared to be the case, with Enable heftier than fighting weight – and still too good for Group 1 opponents.

Regular rider Frankie Dettori put her in a chasing role behind Hunting Horn, the leader through the early and middle stages, as Ryan Moore on Magical – beaten by the same margin in the BC Turf last fall – reined his mount back to third to use Enable as a target. Magical, called on for run at about the quarter-pole, gained slightly on Enable, but Dettori sat chilly as Enable engulfed Hunting Horn and never let Magical really get into the fight.

Regal Reality was third choice in the betting and finished third, two lengths behind Magical. The winner clocked 2:04.77 over good-to-firm ground, a time slightly above par.

Enable will make her next start, all being well, in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 1 1/2 miles, her favorite trip. The Khalid Adbullah homebred is by Nathaniel out of Concentric, by Sadler’s Wells. Her trainer knows the buttons to push at home and her jockey the levers to switch in racing, and the way things look right now – 10 in a row – Enable might never lose again