Enable continued her winning streak with another brilliant performance in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks at York.
Quickly out of the stalls on the final start of her career in Britain, the John Gosden-trained mare repeated her victory in this race from 2017 in emphatic fashion.
Frankie Dettori was comfortable at the head of affairs when he asked the Khalid Abdullah-owned five-year-old for her effort in the straight, and saw off old adversary Magical after the very briefest of tussles to win by two and three-quarter lengths.
Enable (1-4 favourite) will now attempt to lift the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for an unprecedented third successive year at ParisLongchamp in October.
Gosden said: “It was a gorgeous performance from her. She was quick from the gates and there’s no point taking her back, so I said to Frankie if she’s out there let her float away.
“She was drawn one and there was no point complicating it and disappointing her, we should let her go and do her own thing.
“She cruised round there and really quickened the last two (furlongs) — she really turned it on. It’s a long way in front — a mile and a half round the Knavesmire.
“Magical came to her, but she found a lot in the last two furlongs, to that extent she showed her class and it was a good performance.
“She likes her training and she likes her racing, which is why I didn’t want a massive gap to the Arc.
“She’s not a filly that likes to be let all the way down, so between the King George and the Arc was too big a gap — she prefers to be let down a little and then brought back up for a race.
“This was a lovely prep for her, a gorgeous race in its own right and we couldn’t be more pleased with her.”
He added: “This was a nice stepping stone to the Arc, but I’m very aware of the three-year-old colts. We saw a nice one win here (on Wednesday) in Japan and Jean-Claude (Rouget) has a nice horse (Sottsass) who won the Prix du Jockey Club - I thought he looked exceptional.
“She’s got tough competition from the three-year-old boys and there’s always going to be a sneaky three-year-old filly in there, that’s for sure.
“If she runs back to what she did in the Arc as a three-year-old, which she looks like she is showing today, she might by tough to beat, but I do emphasise watch out for the three-year-olds.
“She has this amazing competitive mind. She’s just a great filly with a great constitution.
“I’ve seen some wonderful racemares in my time and she’s one of those. There’s not been many of them.
“I think it was great to bring her here again.”
Dettori was emotional afterwards, saying: “I’m really tearful, because it’s the last day she’ll be running in England, so it’s special. She got a tremendous turn out and produced a tremendous performance.
“I know how good she is, and when I pressed the button she went.”
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Magical was finding Enable too good for the fourth time.
O’Brien said: “She ran very well, it was her first run back and we are delighted with her.
“I’m not sure (where next), she has a lot of options and we’ll see how she is when we bring her back.
“She could go to Leopardstown or something like that.”
On the brilliance of Enable, O’Brien said: “Absolutely, she’s unbelievable.”
