By Sean Cronin
Every day this week, a member of the TDN's Europe/International team nominates a horse of the season. Sean Cronin selects 2017 'Cartier horse of the Year' Enable.
When subsequent G3 Musidora S. victress and G1 Prix de Diane fourth Shutter Speed (GB) (Dansili {GB}) earned TDN Rising Stardom with an impressive score in an Apr. 21 Newbury conditions heat, her John Gosden-trained stablemate Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) entered several notebooks, and narrowly failed to provide Juddmonte Farms with homebred exacta, with a strong-finishing third in that 10-furlong contest. The bay, who had previously opened her account with a maiden score going a shade over one mile atop the Newcastle Tapeta in her sole juvenile start in November, confirmed that latent promise when garnering a first black-type rosette in Chester's May 10 Listed Cheshire Oaks in her second outing of the season.
Against the backdrop of a violent thunderstorm in her next start, Epsom's June 2 G1 Investec Oaks, the clouds of doom hung heavy over her rivals as she powered to a magnificent five-length triumph at the expense of subsequent G1 Prix de l'Opera heroine and GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf runner-up Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), doubling her Classic tally with an equally dominant 5 1/2-length success in the Irish equivalent at The Curragh just over six weeks later. That July 15 Celtic adventure, a first overseas foray, was a mere a fine-tuning exercise as she made a mockery of Admiral Henry Rous's 166-year-old weight-for-age system, and its recent tinkerings, when routing a stellar cast featuring five Group 1 winners–including standard bearers Ulysses (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})–by 4 1/2 lengths and more in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot. She closed a busy summer campaign with another demolition job in the Aug. 24 G1 Yorkshire Oaks, making all to best stablemate and TDN Rising Star Coronet (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) by yet another daylight margin.
However, Enable's crowning glory was to be in Europe's end-of-season championship, and a fitting end to Chantilly's tenure as the temporary home of the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Sent off as the odds-on favourite for France's annual highlight, she was again in a league of her own, opposed by yet another storied assembly, and provided jockey Frankie Dettori with a record-breaking fifth renewal in becoming the first British-trained sophomore filly to annex the 12-furlong contest.
Despite being usurped by Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}) as Europe's highest-rated thoroughbred of 2017 in the wake of that stablemate summoning the spirit of Harbinger (GB) (Dansili {GB}) for his own Ascot denouement in October's G1 Champion S., and notwithstanding a swathe of outstanding performers and performances from other jurisdictions and hemispheres, Enable is a distaffer for the ages and a most worthy nomination for TDN's Horse of the Year.
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