Taken an e/w punt on Idaho at 33-1 1,2,3,4.
Full brother Highland Reel ran 2nd in the race last year when unfancied, having trod a similar path (2nd in Hardwick/won King george), Idaho winning Hardwick and finishing creditable 3rd in King George, losing his place then running on again.
No idea if very testing ground will suit but Heffernan - who is 1,1,3,6,1,3 - on the horse and who was 2,1,2,2,2,1 on Highland Reel, takes the ride. Also think draw 7 is a good place to be to nab a place late on.
Theyve all got Enable to beat though. As always, good luck all!

Topped up again on Satano Diamond at 50-1 ew and Dishingris at 16 sew

I went for Ulysses w/p.

My feeling is that this will be test with a strong pace from the outset and no let up until very late in the day.

You got pace makers and the you got horses like OOSG and Capri who will want to press on as soon as possible.

So I don't think Enable will have it all her own way like in her King George romp....she could get softened up and be target late on.

That's when I think Ulysses can strike....the issue with his stall is where does Jim Crowley decided to start his challenge from....does he stay inside or does he switch wide...stays inside and he'll need the splits which may never come...go outside and could he will lose many lengths and come too late like Harp Star.

So he'll need to work out a trip from #1.   

But I think if he gets a smooth run through he should be bearing down on them late...his form has been top class this season and he should get a dream pace set up.

Just awesome. I did back her but at the prices, not a big stake. Just a pleasure to see a real star win like that. Reminded me of Treve.

No detractors here. She is clearly a top class filly. Now I know why JG never wanted to run Cracksman. Still think she beat f all though.

Will she stay in training? That would be nice.

I did n't have a bet in the race but agree she is an absolute pleasure to watch, massive engine, ability and a temperament to match...

Apart from Cracksman who I agree would not have beaten her, what other 12 furlong horses were missing? Cloth of Stars looked good in the spring and Ulysses has progressed all year. Brametot has always looked a good horse etc. etc. Great for Nathaniel as well.

I'm already booked for next year lets hope she does stay in training. And of course, Cracksman turns up.

Superstar filly. Never looked in doubt, always in the box seat & travelling great, diff class.

I disagree Uncle. A lot of people thought Zarkava should have stayed in training. It just confirms that their status in my opinion. I think it would be great to see her next year with the Arc in mind, don't you?

I'm never a fan of early retirement, it's good to see these champions prove themselves again against the next generation the following year.

Yes excellent write up on Cloth Of Stars by Swagger - convinced me enough to have a little, but win only unfortunately.

Hahaha.

CCM can't refute my arguments on the Liverpool thread so thought he'd try to diss me on here instead. Funny how he hasn't' posted on the Cambridgeshire thread.

Much to your obvious chagrin they clearly ran the strong stayers Idaho and your fancy OoSG in an attempt to try to put it up to Enable for as long as possible in the hope she would wilt.
About as good a strategy as Klopp has with ZLiverpool.

Well done Andrew hope you had a great day. Off to Oxford Street now I guess. Hope I can watch her next year against Cracksman.

Hi Laurie,

Thank you, back in Sweden now after a nice couple of days in UK, but a better two at Chantilly although my daughter will have to wait until December for Oxford St shopping though.

Enable looked well in the paddock, JG has done a great job keeping her in good fettle considering the long season, but she takes her racing well. She won relatively easy imo, Frankie did a lot of the work in the first 2 furlongs and once she settled in the leading group, it was more or less plain sailing from there. As soon as she took the lead, I knew she would pull away, there wasn’t anything in the field to catch her, in fact Frankie let her down in the last 50 metres. I was confident, right from the KG and the several posts on a few threads here back that up (although I also stated she wasn’t a certainty). I've won a good few quid, so happy days.

She’s an exceptional filly, but is she as good or better than my beloved Zarkava, I really think she could be. I fully expect her to race in 2018 and there isn’t much around who could beat her over 12f. although it makes life more difficult with the WFA allowance. Cracksman ? He could make a nice colt in 2018, but I can't see him beating the filly.

I walked behind your buddy TG (and JG) on the way out, shaking hands and congratulating them. I jokingly asked Teddy if she would be back next year, he just laughed and said “we will have to think about that”. I think all concerned know she will, although they have a lot of time to consider it of course, and KA did keep Frankel racing as a 4 year old.

As for Chantilly course, the countryside forest setting is wonderful, but I wasn’t impressed with the facilities. It’s far too small for such a race meeting (poor infrastructure for large crowds and limited seating) and it’s ‘seen better days’, but I guess the FG wanted to keep the race in Paris, there aren’t too many options in France anyway. I did see a video of the progress at Longchamp, it looks superb. I already want to go in April 2018 when it opens again.

I arrived at the airport on Friday evening and it was raining, as it was in parts of Paris on Saturday night, but Sunday afternoon at the course was dry. The pedometer registered 3.6 with the going officially described as ‘souple’ (soft) and I feel this was accurate. It wasn’t heavy.

Some observations on the race

1. Enable's RPR in the race was 129 which is spot on the average RPR for the past 27 years (Highest Peintre Celebre 137  Lowest Found,Solemnia,Urban Sea all 124) By comparisons the RPR's for other previous recent filly winners were Zarkava 129, Treve 131,126,

2.The official going description was soft . On times (RP) given as good

3. Enable was the first British trained filly to win an Arc

4. The first 3 were drawn 2,3,1. Last year the first 3 were drawn 12,11,16.

5. Ulysses was beaten 3.75 L. At Ascot the gap was 4.5 L

6. A return to norm on age for 3yr olds who since 1980 have won 63% of races from 48% of runners. They have won 1.32 times more than expected vs 4yr 0.9 times and 5+ 0.27 times expected.

Was it a vintage year? No, it was an average year.

Was Enable a deserving winner? Absolutely, no flukes, no unlucky horses who might have won.

The future? Watch out for Ulysses when he gets fast ground, especially at 10f, Brametot when returned to 10f, OOSG when returned to 16f+

Sandown
"Was it a vintage year? No, it was an average year. Was Enable a deserving winner? Absolutely, no flukes, no lucky horses who might have won. The future? Look out for Ulysses when he gets fast ground, especially over 10f, Brametot when returned to 10f, and OoSG when returned to 16f+".

I totally agree with your observations and opinions, why? Ulysses is no world beater eg comprehensively beaten by Highland Reel on ground that suited in the Prince Of Wales; OoSG (4th) running in an inadequate trip but should have been 2nd or 3rd if ridden more conservatively; Cloth Of Stars (2nd), a mediocre but fresh horse; Brametot is no Gp1 12f horse; Winter did not stay. Also, there were no former established yardstick Gp1 10f/12f horse eg Postponed, Flintshire, Found, Highland Reel, Almanzor even La Cressoniere, to name a few. But Frankie Dettori rode an intelligent and astute race.

Nevertheless, I'd hope Enable stays in training for at least another year. And, if she wins another Arc only then she'd be compared/talked about in the same vein as Treve, to borrow a remark from Criquette Head.

Yes, just a tad disappointing that Sandown's observations/conclusions contained nothing about the campaign Enable had, or indeed the way it was analysed by some.

Yes, just a tad disappointing that Sandown's observations/conclusions contained nothing about the campaign Enable had, or indeed the way it was analysed by some.

I'll take that as criticism HM, petty criticism as it is.

Figgis addressed the point in his latest post, and I fully agree with that.Or perhaps you didn't read the interview with JG in Sunday's RP. It helps to explain that worrying about the prep for the Arc was also in JG's mind. "He said "It was  at least half my intention to go straight to the Arc but in early August she dropped Mr Dettori one morning and was so well in herself that we decided to go to York." He went on " Part of Enable's weaponry is the sheer stamp of her....exceptional example of the racehorse..incredible body...real depth of girth...powerful cardio-vascular system..notably large lugs." The scales tell you plenty...she has taken all her races incredibly well..weighing in the same now as big as ever..she enjoys her exercise  and she likes to please."


All very positive stuff, which as a punter I would liked to have heard earlier. Part of the stuff which we don't know. The focus on her prep and season was the right thing to have done, the evidence is in the book regarding how it has affected the running of horses, indeed how difficult it is to bring a horse to the race spot on. Indeed, just look at how Fabre manages to do it year after year and his handling of Cloth of Stars was evidence of that. The horses ran a superb race and turned around the form with DS. I would say that COS finishing second was as good a training feat as JG's.

Anyway, to the main point which I and others made which was that taking evens as an AP bet was a poor value bet and if the horse hadn't got there people would have seen the error of their ways. The horse was available on the day at the same price, at least.

If you do not believe that the best prep for winning the Arc is having  a break beforehand, then perhaps you could put up the evidence for that being the case. JG has shown that can be done, as he did with GH, but that doesn't mean that overall that is the best  way. It clearly depends on the horse as well as the trainer, but not being privy to what is happening on the gallops, we have to work with what type of prep has worked best over the years.

Figgis - no one was talking about Authorized or those other horses.  It was the Filly and Mare rubbish that Muscat spouted and Sandown ran with that got my goat.

Sandown - I've clearly failed to convince you that Taghrooda, Snow Fairy and others hadn't failed in the Arc.  Failed to win the Arc, yes, but only a punter who goes no further than form-figures should describe those runs by those horses as failures.  That was were I believed your analysis to be fundamentally flawed and why Muscat's gibberings were called out as monumental guff before the race and proved right after it.  But we're clearly no further down the line despite the race now being run and the result in the book, which is what I, politely rather than pettily, described it as a tad disappointing. 

I see Muscat's at it again today with this statement, neatly delivered as fact..."From a purist’s perspective the barometer of modern excellence in the racehorse is not Frankel, it is Sea The Stars."

WTF are you on about?  I would guess I am a 'purist' and I don't agree with that.  At all.  But we're just counting up those 1s again, it seems, and as Sea The Stars had more 1s than Frankel (at 3) he gets Julian's gong.