Can Enable Be Named The Greatest Flat Horse In History If She Wins The Arc?

Enable on Sunday at Paris Longchamp is biding to become the first ever horse in the history of the sport to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe for the third consecutive year.

The five year old became the eighth horse in the races history to win back to back renewals of the race and with many trying to emulate their success for a third year it has still yet to be done.

However, the reason why there is so much hype and the whole racing world will be on the edge of their seats at 3:05 on Sunday afternoon is because Enable out of any horse to try and do this, she has the best chance of the lot of them.

The wonder mare trained by John Gosden and ridden by Frankie Dettori has had an amazing career that is expected to come to an end after her run in France at the weekend.

With this in mind we are looking into whether she can be classed as the greatest flat horse to ever grace the sport, if she does go on and win the Arc for a third successive year.

Enable started her career on a cold night at Newcastle racecourse, she set off in a Class 5 Maiden Fillies' Stakes over a mile with the racing world watching on not truly knowing what to expect but they were to be pleasantly surprised.

She hosed up by close to three lengths, showing electric pace but also a will to want to go further and from that day her trainer and owner knew she was going to be special.

Enable from there had 144 days off the track and came back as a three year old and on her seasonal debut came third at Newbury in what was her last ever defeat as a race horse.

In that season after that run she went on to win her next six races which included five Group One contests starting with the Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Yorkshire Oaks and then taking the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly.

All these Group 1 accomplishments made her the Cartier Horse Of The Year and rightfully so, after being breath taking in every run she had and from there it was a waiting game to see if she would return as a four year old.

The super mare did return but her season did not start as planned with the Prince Khalid Abdullah owned filly suffering a terrible set back in training and had to take 342 days off the track with many people wondering whether she would ever return.

She did to the delight of the racing world and as a four year old, after only being 80 percent fit she won the Group 3 September Stakes at Kempton brushing a side one of the stand out horses of the year in Crystal Ocean by five lengths.

This meant that it was all systems go for the Arc at Longchamp this time around, where she was looking to make it back to back wins and become the first British horse to do so and off the back of no preparation for such a big race she went on to create history.

Her season was not over there and she was sent to the Breeders Cup meeting in at Churchill Downs in America and was asked to do something that no other racehorse in history has ever done before by winning the Arc and the Breeders Cup Turf in the same season.

Records are made to be broken and she went on to take the Group One spoils seeing off a fierce challenge from the Aidan O'Brien trained filly Magical and truly cemented herself as one of the greatest fillies to ever live.

At the end of this years flat season she picked up the Cartier Older Horse Of The Year again and to the delight of the racing world was announced that she will be back in training for the following as a five year old with the main target being to go and try and win a third consecutive Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Now in 2019 and the mare is back for what looks to be her final season and there were questions at the start of the season whether or not at five years old she would be as good.

She answered that question on her seasonal debut in the Coral Eclipse at Sandown when she went on to assert her dominance seeing off many younger horses who had already had a run this season like her Breeders Cup rival Magical.

Gosden turned her around fairly quickly running her at the end of July in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes where she was faultless in one of the greatest battles of the season.

She took on Crystal Ocean who had been unbeatable all season and with the two neck and neck with a furlong to go she managed to stick her neck out and take the Group One.

That was thought to be her last race before the Arc but Gosden thought she needed another prep run before he history making run and that came in the Yorkshire Oaks, a race she has already won.

With her entry scaring off a potential big field of runners only four turned out with her breezing to victory with Magical hopelessly chasing her shadow for the third time in her career.

With the Arc just a few days away now and with all this evidence can she be classed as the greatest flat horse to ever live if she goes on to win the race, beating the likes of Frankel, Yeats, Secretariat, Sea The Stars to name a few.

We are going to stick our necks out and say she can be classed as the greatest flat horse to ever live breaking record after record, landing 10 Group One races, coming back from injury to still win effortlessly and also find even more as a racehorse at the age of five all collectively comes together to show how much of a superstar she is.

Enable will be a name in the sport that will last forever and we like many other racing fans are hoping she can create history on Sunday and bring home her third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.