Two-Time Horse of the Year Champion Enable Retires

Record-breaking mare Enable retired on Monday when her Juddmonte Farms connections announced she would begin her breeding career next year.

The announcement came in a written statement from Juddmonte Farms early Monday. The statement announced that Enable’s first date next spring is with the stallion Kingman.

“After consulting her trainer John Gosden and his racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe, Prince Khalid has decided that Enable will be retired from racing and will now join the Juddmonte broodmare band to be covered by Kingman in 2021,” CEO Douglas Erskine Crum said in a statement.

Prince Khalid refers to Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The prince, a member of the Saudi royal family, owns Juddmonte Farms and Enable. He also owns Kingman, a four-time Group 1 winner who sired Palace Pier, the favorite for next month’s Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Enable Goes 15-for-19 Against Some of the World’s Best

This ends a 19-race career that produced 15 wins – including 11 Group or Grade 1s. The 6-year-old mare won those Group 1 races in four countries, rolling up £10.7 million in career earnings — a record for a European-trained horse.

And that just scratches the surface of Enable’s glittering resume. A two-time Cartier Award winner as Europe’s Horse of the Year (2017, 2018), Enable won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe twice, and finished second a third time. She was going for an unprecedented third title earlier this month, but, in what marked her final race, finished sixth on a soft, rain-saturated ParisLongchamp course. That marked the only time in 19 races Enable failed to hit the board.

There was hope Enable would wrap up her career in Saturday’s British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes where she was a 3/2 favorite.

Ascending a Rising Arc of Group/Grade 1 Titles

Instead, Enable will bask in the glow of those two Arc titles, along with three King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes titles, five Oaks titles (including a record in the Epsom Oaks), and the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf. When she won that latter race at Churchill Downs, Enable became the only horse to win the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same year.

“She has brought so much joy to everyone who has been involved with her, Grimthorpe said.

That included Europe’s best rider, Frankie Dettori, who piloted Enable her final 17 races. Dettori took the reins after Enable lost her first race as a 3-year-old. After that, Dettori and Enable reeled off a 12-race, 27-month winning streak that ended with last year’s Arc runner-up.

That day, Enable was a 1/2 favorite to three-peat in Europe’s richest race. Once again, soft turf neutralized her natural speed and she finished second to 13/1 Waldgeist.

“Obviously I shed a tear as I was a bit emotional,” Dettori told the BBC. “She has touched my heart and has been one of the great mares of our generation. I went to see her this morning. I accept the decision and she doesn’t owe anyone anything.”

Enough Respect to Merit Her Own Fan Club

Enable gave her connections and racing fans so many moments that she had her own fan club throughout the UK and Ireland. That partially explains why her Arc odds were lower than even Gosden believed they should be.

“In her, Frankie found a willing partner to execute her ability on the racecourse,” Grimthorpe said. “Her CV withstands the closest of inspections (and) very few can match what she has given to racing.”