Nineteen times she met the starter and in 15 of those Enable was the first across the line. Her 12-race win streak spanned three seasons as she matured from filly to mare, no stage too big for this homebred Juddmonte star. Under the Twin Spires, she showed what she was made of, adding Breeders’ Cup victor to her already stellar résumé. A record-breaking career not only made Enable a star in Europe, but her stateside performance made her a queen of hearts everywhere.

The Queen Enters

By 2014, Prince Khalid Abdullah had developed a breeding and racing program that brought his Juddmonte Farms classic victories in England, Ireland, France, and the United States. Among his best was the undefeated Frankel, who won Group 1 races like the Two Thousand Guineas and the St. James’s Palace Stakes. A son of Galileo, Frankel helped make other sons of the great Epsom Derby winner hot commodities as stallions. One of those was Nathaniel.

Nathaniel faced Frankel early in their respective 2-year-old seasons and was just a half-length back at the finish line, the closest finish of Frankel’s career. Nathaniel later went on to win two Group 1 races before retiring to Newsells Park Stud in England. There, he covered a Juddmonte mare named Concentric, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells and a stakes winner in France. From their pairing came a bay filly with a distinctive large star and trail of white down her face, Enable.

To prepare her for the racetrack, Enable went to the barn of John Gosden, who first made a name for himself in California in the 1980s before returning to England to build a classic-winning career. In 2016, he brought the 2-year-old Enable to Newcastle for a one-mile maiden race, which she won by 3¾ lengths. Satisfied with her debut performance, Gosden saved the filly for her 3-year-old season. She was third at 10 furlongs at Newbury in late April and then came back in the Cheshire Oaks in early May. In that race, she beat Alluringly by 1 ¾ lengths, the victory touching off the aforementioned winning streak that would span multiple seasons.

The Queen Ascends

In a driving rain at Epsom, Enable faced Rhododendron and eight other fillies in the 1 ½-mile Investec Oaks. With Frankie Dettori in the saddle, she relaxed in third before kicking on in the final furlongs to pass Pocketfullofdreams and Sobetsu and challenge for the lead. Going with her was Rhododendron, who dueled with Enable for a furlong before the Juddmonte filly turned on the jets and rocketed to a five-length victory. Six weeks later, Enable added a second Grade 1 victory in the Irish Oaks.

Enable and Dettori after the 2017 Arc win. (Eclipse Sportswire)

By the end of her sophomore season, Enable had earned three more Group 1 wins, including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Her 2018 season got a late start after a knee issue kept her off the racetrack until September. She started with the September Stakes on the all-weather at Kempton Park Racecourse, winning that Group 3 by 3½ lengths, and then traveling to Longchamp for her second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Her long layoff meant that she might not have been tuned up enough for the 1 ½-mile test, but with Frankie Dettori in the saddle, he was able to time her run to hit the lead at the right time to hold off Sea of Class by a neck.

“You’re not meant to come into the Arc after one run on the all-weather. I had a slight hiccup between Kempton and here, which wasn’t ideal either,” Gosden told the Racing Post after the Arc. “She had a temperature and missed a piece of work, and the way the race was run tested her fitness. The last 100 meters were an eternity for me, the jockey, and the horse.

Enable’s Arc win qualified her for the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs. Her challengers included horses like graded stakes winner Channel Maker; Talismanic, the 2017 Turf victor; Magical, a European Group 1 stakes winner; and history: no Arc winner had also taken the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season. In a year that saw Justify break “the curse of Apollo,” could Enable do what had not been done before and follow up her second Arc with a victory under the Twin Spires?

Rain had soaked Churchill’s turf course earlier in the week, and though the course condition was good by Saturday, soft spots had Enable spinning her wheels early in the race. Dettori took the filly to the outside, finding a suitable running lane toward the middle of the course as the field entered the stretch. Going with her was Magical, the two fillies separating themselves from the boys as they raced for the finish line. Every time Enable tried to shake Magical, the other filly would continue to challenge, but the Juddmonte champion was able to hold her off and win by three-quarters of a length to become the first Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner to complete the Breeders’ Cup Turf double.

After a season shortened by injury, Enable’s Breeders’ Cup feat showed what the daughter of Nathaniel could do in the face of adversity. “She’s been very brave and mentally very strong to get herself here,” Gosden told BloodHorse. “She did it here today with guts and determination.”

The Queen Bids Farewell

At the end of her 2018 season, Enable already had two Arc wins plus a Breeders’ Cup Turf victory and four other Group 1s, enough stellar victories to make calling it a day after the World Championships understandable. However, Gosden and Juddmonte brought her back for more in 2019. She won the Coral-Eclipse, a second King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and another edition of the Yorkshire Oaks that season before falling short of a third Arc victory, ending her 12-race win streak with a second-place finish.

Enable returned for a fifth season in 2020 and added a third King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and a second September Stakes. Her final race was the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, where soft ground and a slow pace hampered the Juddmonte runner as she finished outside of the top three for the first and only time in her career.

“She is the horse that I’ve loved the most in all my career, she really touched my heart, and I’m pleased that she bows out of the sport in one piece,” jockey Frankie Dettori, who was aboard Enable for all but two of her starts, told the Racing Post. “Because she’s been around for so long, I’ve got very attached to her. I was tearful last night and, of course, it’s emotional but today I went to see her, and I’ll always remember her for the good stuff.”