Enable Powers to the Oaks Double

With the middle-distance 3-year-old colts failing to provide a generation leader, Juddmonte's G1 Epsom Oaks heroine Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) laid claim to being the best of both sexes in her age group on Saturday with a powerful display in the G1 Darley Irish Oaks at The Curragh. Never out of her comfort zone, the homebred surged away from overmatched rivals to make her odds of 2-5 look generous as she slammed the G1 Pretty Polly S. runner-up Rain Goddess (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) by 5 1/2 lengths. In this imperious mood, there would have to be some serious improvers among either the King George or Arc protagonists to stop her from dominating at Ascot in a fortnight or at Chantilly in October if connections go that way. Frankie Dettori, who only returned this week after suffering a shoulder injury last month, was taken aback by the performance. “I think she has improved since Epsom–she was always in second gear and when I gave her a backhander she flew,” he commented after steering his fourth Irish Oaks winner. “I was able to ease my way to the line and save my shoulder. She is amazing. She has a good cruising speed for a stayer and can quicken and gets the distance really well. She doesn't do much at home and is hard to gauge, but as long as she gives performances like that we don't have to worry too much. I probably came back a week or two early, but this was the dangling carrot that made me.”

Saturday, Curragh, Ireland
DARLEY IRISH OAKS-G1, €400,000, CUR, 7-15, 3yo, f, 12fT, 2:32.13, g/f.
1–ENABLE (GB), 126, f, 3, by Nathaniel (Ire)
1st Dam: Concentric (GB) (SW & GSP-Fr, $117,776), by Sadler's Wells
2nd Dam: Apogee (GB), by Shirley Heights (GB)
3rd Dam: Bourbon Girl, by Ile de Bourbon
O-Khalid Abdullah; B-Juddmonte Farms Ltd (GB); T-John
Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. €228,000. Lifetime Record:
G1SW-Eng, 5-4-0-1, $676,312. *1/2 to Contribution (GB)
(Champs Elysees {GB}), MGSP-Fr. Werk Nick Rating: D. Click
   for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Rain Goddess (Ire), 126, f, 3, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Where (Ire), by Danehill Dancer (Ire)
2nd Dam: Virginia Waters, by Kingmambo
3rd Dam: Legend Maker (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
O-Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor &
Derrick Smith; B-Where Syndicate (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien.
€80,000.
3–Eziyra (Ire), 126, f, 3, by Teofilo (Ire)
1st Dam: Eytarna (Ire), by Dubai Destination
2nd Dam: Ebaziya (Ire), by Darshaan (GB)
3rd Dam: Ezana (Ire), by Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire)
O-H H The Aga Khan; B-H H The Aga Khan's Studs SC (IRE);
T-Dermot Weld. €40,000.
Margins: 5HF, 2, 1 1/4. Odds: 0.40, 7.00, 20.00.
Also Ran: Coronet (GB), Aurora Butterfly (Ire), Alluringly, Intricately (Ire), Bean Feasa (GB), Bengala (Fr), Naughty Or Nice (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Thoughts that Enable would be this good at the start of the year were fanciful, even allowing for the promise of her debut win over a mile on Newcastle's Tapeta at the end of November. All focus was on her stablemate Shutter Speed (GB) (Dansili {GB}) as they lined up for the same 10-furlong conditions race at Newbury Apr. 2 which had been taken by a previous Oaks heroine in Light Shift (Kingmambo) and that proved correct as Enable finished third behind her and the eventual G3 Bahrain Trophy scorer Raheen House (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}). It was only when she upset Alluringly (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) on her first attempt at this kind of trip in the May 10 Listed Cheshire Oaks that she drew attention from the pundits but in the lead-up to the June 2 Epsom Classic it was all about Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). In a dramatic storm, Khalid Abdullah's homebred displayed what she was truly capable of by cracking that Ballydoyle favourite and going away to score by five lengths in race-record time. There was certainly more to take from that race than the blue riband 24 hours later and she proved here that she would be more than a match for any colt around.

Travelling with elan as she tracked the leader Bengala (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}) in a clear second throughout the early stages, there was a danger that she was overdoing it but as soon as Frankie asked the question in the straight she settled any worries in an instant. As Rain Goddess emerged to chase, she could have tired but instead she continued to grow stronger as the line approached and she duly hit that in a rapid time. “She did it very well and got a nice lead into the straight,” trainer John Gosden commented. “I couldn't be more pleased and she has probably come on since Epsom. She has tactical speed and a great temperament and has always been a lovely filly to be around. The [G1] King George and Queen Elizabeth S. is an option, but I see she has a near-hind cut so we'll have to see. There is also the [Aug. 24 G1] Yorkshire Oaks and the [Oct. 1] Arc, so we have plenty of options.”

Teddy Grimthorpe was also impressed. “That was very exciting–it's a long time back to [the operation's two previous Irish Oaks winners] Wemyss Bight and Bolas and she has done it in the style of a top-class filly,” he commented. “The way the race was run at Epsom, they really put it to her and she outstayed them and although today the pace was not quite so energetic and it was run at a sensible gallop it was something to get a good stride into. She was very much physically tall and leggy at two, but has got some substance and strength to her now and also has a very nice temperament. I'd have to talk to John and Prince Khalid about the King George, as it could come too soon and we could instead go to the Yorkshire Oaks and other races in the autumn. She'd have to be supplemented for the Arc, but they are nice thoughts to have.”

Dermot Weld was delighted with the performance of last year's G3 C.L. & M.F. Weld Park S. scorer Eziyra (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and said, “That was an excellent renewal of the race and I am thrilled with her. She was a good group winner over seven at two and the way she got that trip, we might look at further with her. There is the [G2] Park Hill [S. at Doncaster Sept. 14] and possibly the [G2] Prix de Royallieu [at Chantilly Sept. 30]. She is a filly that is just developing and coming at the right time.” John Gosden also said of TDN Rising Star and the G2 Ribblesdale S. winner Coronet (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who plugged on into fourth, “She was not happy and was changing her legs on the track, with Olivier Peslier niggling her along early. She is a better filly than that and we live to fight another day.”

Enable is out of the Listed Prix Charles Laffitte winner and G3 Prix de Flore runner-up Concentric, who also produced the G2 Prix de Pomone and G3 Prix Allez France third Contribution. She is one of five black-type performers to have emerged from the G3 Prix de Royaumont winner Apogee alongside sire Apsis (GB) and the G1 Prix de Diane runner-up Dance Routine (GB) (Sadler's Wells). The latter is in turn responsible for the multiple top-flight winner and champion Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) who was twice second in the Arc, and also the G2 Prix Kergolay third Dance Moves (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Apogee's Listed Prix Joubert winner Space Quest (GB) (Rainbow Quest) is the dam of the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris runner-up Kocab (GB) (Unfuwain), while the third dam is Bourbon Girl who was runner-up in both the G1 English and Irish Oaks. Her best progeny was the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly winner and G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud runner-up Daring Miss (GB) (Sadler's Wells). The family also features the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud-winning sire Spanish Moon and G2 Ribblesdale S. scorer Spanish Sun (El Prado {Ire}). Concentric also has a 2-year-old colt by Dansili (GB) named Centroid (GB), a yearling filly also by that sire and a filly foal by Frankel (GB).