Khalid Abdullah, John Gosden and Frankie Dettori — owner, trainer and jockey — already figured among the great names of racing. After this year’s Qipco-sponsored King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes they were joined in the pantheon by Enable, the astonishing filly who has been the prime focus of their attentions this year. As she stood in the winner’s enclosure, her flanks heaving with the effort but her intelligent eye still flickering around the gathering of racing’s great and good, both she and we had no doubt that we were in the presence of equine greatness. She has huge ability, she has guts and she has presence.
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the first clash over a mile-and-a-half between the three-year-olds contesting the year’s Classics and their elders, is crucial to racing’s pecking order and although none of this year’s Derby winners in England, Ireland or France had turned up for the contest we knew it promised something special.
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