The outstanding three-year-old filly Enable was named the Cartier Horse of the Year at the 27th annual Cartier Racing Awards last night. She also took the Three-Year-Old Filly category.

From Nathaniel’s first Classic crop of three-year-olds, Enable recorded five consecutive Gr.1 victories in 2017. She was very impressive against her own sex in two Classics, the Gr.1 Investec Oaks at Epsom Downs and the Gr.1 Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh, winning by five lengths each time, before easily defeating all-aged, all-sex opposition in Ascot’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, for her owner Khalid Abdullah and trainer John Gosden.

Ridden by Frankie Dettori, Enable captured a third Oaks at York in August, the Gr.1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks, and created history by becoming the first British-trained filly to win Europe’s most valuable race, the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly. Her comfortable two and a half-length victory against a high-class field was an outstanding performance, and the prospect of Enable staying in training in 2018 is very exciting.  The three other Cartier Horse of the Year nominees were Cracksman, Ribchester and Ulysses.

Julian Dollar, Newsells Park Stud general manager said: “We are so delighted for Enable’s connections, Prince Khalid Abdullah, John Gosden, and the Juddmonte team, to win such a prestigious award. Enable truly does deserve her place as one of the ‘greatest fillies of all time’.  We are obviously also delighted for Nathaniel, for any stallion to produce a horse of her calibre in their entire career would be a mighty feather in their cap, but to do it with your very first-crop, marks Nathaniel as a very special stallion prospect indeed.”

Harry Herbert, Cartier’s Racing Consultant, commented: “Enable enjoyed five commanding victories at Gr.1 level and her performances, particularly at Ascot and Chantilly, mark her out as a filly of rare distinction. She is a very appropriate winner of Cartier Horse of the Year.”

Bred by Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, Enable is the fourth generation bred by Prince Khalid being out of the Stakes winning mare Concentric, also the dam of Gr.2 Prix de Pomone and Gr.3 Prix Allez France-placed Contribution.  Out of the Gr.3 Prix de Royaumont winer Apogee, Concentric is a full-sister to the Gr.2 Prix de Royallieudam winner Dance Routine. 

It capped a great few days for the Newsells Park Stud sire Nathaniel with Chasedown becoming his latest Stakes winner when winning the Listed Premio Roma Vecchia at the weekend.

View the video courtesy of Cartier Racing Awards.