Can Enable defy her age to win l’Arc once more?

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Enable tasted defeat for the first time in two-and-a-half years when she was bested in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe by Waldgeist at Longchamp last season. The bay filly had enjoyed an imperious run at the top of the flat racing and was pressing for her third triumph in a row in l’Arc.

However, John Gosden’s charge lacked the pace when it mattered the most, losing out to French-trained thoroughbred Waldgeist by one-and-three-quarter lengths. Despite the setback, Enable has been backed to return once more for another crack at the prestigious crown that would set her apart from the other seven horses that have won two titles. As it stands, the six-year-old is the leading contender to win the race this term. Enable has quality, although she will have to contend with her advancing years along with the top-quality competition.

If Enable were to win the race in October 2020, she would be the second-oldest horse to triumph. Motrico claimed victory in l’Arc at the age of seven in 1932, winning the event for the second time. However, since then it has tended to be a race for the younger horses to thrive. Waldgeist broke the trend to some degree last term by becoming the first five-year-old since Marienbard in 2002 to enter the grand winners’ circle at Longchamp. Before that only three horses five and over have triumphed in the years since the end of the Second World War.

As a result, Enable will have to put forward a special outing indeed to defy her age to set her apart in the history of l’Arc. Then there’s the standard of the competition around her. A great deal may change between now and the time of the race, and it will be worth your while to find out all the horse racing results to track the progress of the contenders before the action commences.

Logician, son of the great Frankel, could be one of the challengers for the crown. Gosden will have two bites of the apple if he chooses to put the grey colt into the fray. The three-year-old won all five of his races in the 2019 campaign, including the Great Voltigeur Stakes and the St Leger Stakes. His performance at Doncaster Racecourse in the St Leger was outstanding – dominating the rest of the field to claim the crown by two-and-a-quarter lengths. He could be the next great one to emerge out of Gosden’s yard and the ownership of Khalid Bin Abdullah.

Sottsass finished third behind Waldgeist and Enable last season, putting in a fine performance, although it was not enough to challenge down the stretch. Jean-Claude Rouget’s charge will have been all the better for the experience and may have a better chance of success as a four-year-old. The French thoroughbred has the comfortability factor on home soil, with three races under his belt at Longchamp, including a victory in the Qatar Prix Niel in September 2019. The chestnut colt could be a force to be reckoned with should he find form in the 2020 campaign.

There looks to be a tough road ahead of Enable in her bid for glory – and that’s even without the potential of seeing Waldgeist compete once more. However, she has been one of the finest horses to take to the track of all time and it would be fitting for Enable to ride to victory at Longchamp once more in October.