Enable enhanced her credentials as the best middle-distance horse in training with a decisive front-running success in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks at York.
Despite sweating up beforehand, there was never an anxious moment in the race itself for supporters of the 1-4 favourite, as she made it Group One win number four for the season in devastating fashion.
Quickly out of the stalls, the John Gosden-trained three-year-old was soon into an early lead she was to maintain all the way to the line in the mile-and-a-half contest.
Winding the tempo up early on down the home straight, the daughter of Nathaniel continued to lengthen in impressive fashion for Frankie Dettori, as each of her rivals began to feel the pinch.
Pressing on relentlessly, the odds-on market leader crossed the line five lengths clear of stablemate Coronet, to add to her wins in the English and Irish Oaks and last time out in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Enable was immediately cut to even money by Paddy Power for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Gosden said: “She got a little bit lonely (in front), but she’s done it beautifully. It’s proved she can do it from the front as well.
“She’s somewhat special. I think at a mile and a half she is the best filly I’ve ever trained, she’s exceptional and able to do it both ways, from the front and off the pace.
“She’ll go to the Arc.”
Dettori said: “I must say she got a bit bored in the end. I pushed her out, but I felt I had something left if someone had come to her. If you try and keep with her, they will break their lungs and that’s why she wins by five lengths.
“I had to stretch her out and she likes to have a fight on her hands — unfortunately today there was no fight and we had to do our own thing.
“I don’t like to say until the Arc (whether best horse ridden), so far she is doing everything the right way and would be one of the best.
“She goes there (Arc) with a favourite’s chance and with the weight allowance. She has won four Group Ones in a row by five lengths and you can’t ask for more than that.”
Gosden added: “I left the tactics up to Frankie. She pricked her ears out in front, but she just got lonely near the end and was just looking for some company. It’s not her favourite way of running, but she can do that.
“We had a lot to lose coming here — you all remember a horse called Taghrooda - but we let her use her stride and she has gone and won by five lengths and she can’t do any more.
“The timing between this and the Arc is lovely. What else were we going to do. We’ve now got seven weeks and while we will let her down we will keep her cantering because she is so well she dropped Frankie the other morning.
“We don’t need to run her in the Prix Vermeille, but the second might go there, along with Journey. Coronet got lost in Ireland and didn’t enjoy herself, but that was much more like it.”
