Previously, Lord Grimthorpe, who is the racing manager to Enable’s owner had said a decision hadn’t been made but said it was “In everybody’s minds, it is getting towards the end”. And part-owner Dietrich Von Boetticher seemed to confirm Enable’s retirement when he said that he felt you should never exhaust a horse and added, “This is all about what’s good for Waldgeist and not what’s good for the owners.”
Defeat in Europe’s richest Flat race ended a sequence of 12 successive wins for the horse and jockey Frankie Dettori. With the horse back in training, it opens up the possibility of Enable racing in the 2020 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Success there would hand Dettori his seventh victory at one of Europe’s top races.
Prince Khalid Abdullah’s decision has surprised many in the sport. BBC’s horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght admitted he called Enable’s retirement wrong as he felt after the defeat in the Arc that the mare would have been passing her brilliance onto a new generation. He added;
We await news of the road to Longchamp, but how fabulous if the great race, first staged in 1920, were to celebrate its century with what would be a truly historic success.– Cornelius Lysaght, BBC’s horse racing correspondent.
The Prix de l’Arc is currently the world’s second-richest turf race and is worth £4.4 million, only the Everest race in Australia offers more prize money (£13.3 million). The In 2020 Prix de L’arc Triomphe Festival will be held at the weekend of October 3rd-4th with main race taking place in the afternoon of the Sunday.
