IT’S all systems go for superstar Enable as she chases a third win in the King George on Saturday.
Trainer John Gosden is confident he has her in the best possible shape to take on three Ballydoyle-trained colts in the Ascot Group 1.
Now a six-year-old, the mare suffered just the third defeat of her glittering career when second to Ghaiyyath in the Coral-Eclipse earlier this month.
That was her first run since a gut-wrenching defeat in the Arc in October, and Gosden reiterated on Thursday that she was short of peak fitness at Sandown.
Gosden said: “I did try and tell people very clearly beforehand that she was not at 100 per cent. She tired in the last furlong but we were delighted with her run.
“She was taking on an in-form horse in Ghaiyyath at probably the best front-runners track in the country. I said to Frankie if we sit on his tail and have a real hard race, we are going to go backwards from this, not forwards.”
He continued: “I was very open with everybody that, being at the age she is now, she found it difficult to getting to race fitness; far more than ever before, even when she came back from injury as a four-year-old.
“She’s always been mentally hardened but what’s changed, with age, is her metabolism. Consequently, she never gained that tightness of the muscle like she normally would, it took her a lot longer.
“She’s a six-year-old racemare and not that wild, exuberant three-year-old race filly who could just do anything.
“I didn’t want to push her hard for the Eclipse. She knows what she wants to do, she’s very positive and a wonderful filly to train in that that she is determined to do everything.
“So I just went with her. I wasn’t going to start pushing her and telling her what to do.
“The race has put her right and her work has been perfect on the Limekilns since. She’s been working with just one other horse, and I’ve let her lead a couple of works to just enjoy that for a change. She comes into this race in very good order.”
She is the 8-15 favourite with Betway to win an unprecedented third King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes, and Gosden reckons she is not far off her peak at present.
He said: “I’m of the viewpoint that a Flat horse, if sound and healthy, reaches its zenith at five. I’ve seen that a lot, particularly in America where we tend to race them longer.
“I still see her at her peak, maybe not quite the peak, but she’s trained beautifully for this.”
SEE ALL FREE BETS HERE
