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John Gosden answers the big questions ahead of Enable's run at Ascot
John Gosden faced the media on Monday morning to talk all things Enable ahead of her latest big-race assignment.
She bids to win the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO) for the second successive season and heads there on the back of a winning return at Sandown.
How has she been since the Coral-Eclipse?
We’ve been pleased with her. She's just done routine work, she worked on Saturday with Frankie on her and she seems happy and well for what is a tall order. I see the betting industry has put her at a price they don’t want anyone to back her at, pricing her the way she is is not realistic in terms of her chances but it is realistic in terms of them trying to protect themselves.
You say it's a tall order on Saturday - why do you feel that way?
I think it is. She won it as a three-year-old filly getting the weight, just as Taghrooda did, it’s a little different when you're older and suddenly have a Derby winner coming at you with the weight allowance. There’s a wonderful older horse in there in Crystal Ocean who ran a blinder last year and won the Prince Of Wales’s well so this is no penalty kick, absolutely not.
I said she was 85% maybe 90% in the Coral-Eclipse and she’ll have come on for it. We’ve had a pretty hot week and she's up for it but I just don't think it’s the formality the betting indicates. It's a horse race and she’s giving weight to three-year-olds and talking on a magnificent older horse as well.
She's a pleasure to be around and is a great filly. She had a very, very difficult time of it last year and came back from injury, surgery and sickness between Kempton and the Arc and still managed to do the job. We've had a smoother run this year, she seems to have maintained her enthusiasm for racing and she really enjoys her work.
How much are you able to enjoy a filly like her?
You're watching everything the whole time, most trainers are neurotic and I’m probably no exception. She has a great physique and a wonderful mind on her and great depth. When she first came in as a yearling the one thing that amazed me to start with was the great depth of her girth of her heart rhythm. Frankie says when she stretches in the last part of a race he feels his legs move as she gets lower to pick up – not many horses has he felt that on.
What are her key assets?
As you saw at Sandown she has tactical speed which is very important and helps a jockey. When she won at the Arc at Chantilly it was that tactical speed from a very difficult draw that won the day. Two is on the far side and they come out of the gate and angle left and come cross. If she hadn't broken well and allowed Frankie to get off the rail, she’d have been boxed in and done for. At Chantilly once you’re down by the old stables they pull it up and you are stuck. We walked the track and Frankie knew exactly where he had to be 400 metres down and she got him there.
How important is it having a jockey on your side who is riding as well as Frankie is now?
Like any rider – or even Lewis Hamilton driving a Formula One car – if you get in the zone and get your confidence you’re not frightened of anything. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a banana skin around every corner but having said that he is riding very well and Saturday in the Irish Oaks was a very good example. He was concerned they might go forward and then pull the pace up – we discussed it before and I said with me you have a blank canvas and can paint the painting any way you want. He went out there and thought 'I’m not happy with what's happening' and set his own fractions.
How worried were you ahead of her reappearance in the Coral-Eclipse?
Going back to a mile-and-a-quarter was an issue and your're always worried coming back after eight months off. We didn't take her away for a racecourse gallop and she did all of her work here in Newmarket. It wasn't until we got her on a particular gallop she likes, the Round Gallop on the Limekilns, that she showed the zest and her old spark.
Prior to then she was like the heavyweight boxer getting ready for a championship and he's been off a number of months. He's in the gym and running on the road and that's tough mentally, getting back to full fitness and I think that’s where she was, just quietly going through the motions. Then the last two weeks before Sandown you saw all of her passion for racing and training come out. Suddenly Frankie was literally hanging on rather than saying ‘can we go a little faster, dear’.
What's she like as a filly?
You wouldn’t want to wander into her box. She'd soon tell you that's her space. She's assertive. She knows what she wants and what she wants to do. The key is to go along with it and not argue with her.
Where does she rank among the horses you've trained?
The best mile-and-a-half filly - she's pretty extraordinary in what she's done. She had one run at Newcastle as a two-year-old and then what she did at three was amazing. She got a little boxed in at Newbury in a race that was won by another filly of ours in Shutter Speed – but after that she’s done everything you could have asked.
I admired her a lot for what she did last year, coming back from injury. Like any great athlete that’s not an easy thing to do – to get yourself right back up there to the top again and she wasn’t at her best in the Arc. Frankie rode a magnificent race. He hung on a little longer as he knew he wouldn't have quite the petrol in the tank he'd normally have and in the end picked her up and carried her over the line. Then we went to America and she was coming back to her best.
Where next for her?
Hopefully we can get through to the Arc again – there’s Ascot then possibly York and onto ParisLongchamp. It’s a big ask of any athlete but she’s proud and happy in herself right now.
I had problems getting here there last year and then she got sick between the September Stakes and the race. She was being led out for a week – this is not the way you want to go into the Arc – one run on the all-weather then suddenly a hiccup. She did very well to overcome that.
How has 2019 gone for her so far?
It’s been a lot smoother. She didn’t appreciate the cold east winds of the spring so we delayed her comeback – we talked about the Investec Coronation Cup and Royal Ascot but I was quite keen to run from July onwards. If you run early you're going to need a mid-season break. You watch the French, they go early then have the break and come back for the Arc, via the trials. You can't expect them to go from pillar-to-post throughout the season so I'm glad we didn’t get her going until July.