Ruby Walsh: No Love, but Enable has plenty at Prix De l’Arc de Triomphe

Stradivarius: One of a number of horses who pose a major threat to Enable’s bid for a third Arc success. Picture: Healy Racing

So much has changed in the last seven months that having the Prix De l’Arc de Triomphe in its usual slot on the first Sunday in October almost seems unreal.

To think the Irish Open was in September, the inter-county championship has not started, and the Champions Cup final of 2020 is being played in October just shows how upside down the sporting world has become.

I know racing got going before most, but sharp and radical changes to the schedule last June now mean the whole game is back to its normal calendar. It is the only normality, but it is a start and, by making those early fixes, it feels like a line has been drawn under what was missed and racing is moving forward.

The pandemic is here to stay for a while yet and who knows what will survive the next few months as financial supports dry up, but racing shut down for the war in the 1940s and bounced back after it was over, so it will do so again in some shape or form.

Ironically, the Irish Grand National was lost to war in 1941, Cheltenham raced that year before losing its renewals in 1943 and 1944, while Paris had already lost the 1939 and 1940 editions of tomorrow’s Autumn highlight. The 1943 and 1944 races were staged, but not at Longchamp. Instead they raced at Le Trembelay, just outside Paris, or in Urban Paris, wherever that is.

It looks like even back then the countries across Europe were taking different stances on how to deal with a crisis but cancellation and moving on seems to be best practice rather than trying to fit everything in.

What hasn’t changed since 1920 and the first renewal of the race is that no horse has managed to win to three Arcs.

And so, in its 99th running and on the 95th occasion it will have been held at Longchamp — Chantilly held it in 2016 and 2017 — Enable will bid to win her third at the fourth attempt.

Last year Waldgeist thwarted her in the shadows of the post and denied her the hat-trick following her brilliant performance in 2017 at Chantilly and a battling win in 2018 at Longchamp.

When the French racing authorities created this race, they did so to showcase French horse racing and breeding on an international stage but on a level playing field for the best horses from anywhere in the world.

Being created just after World War 1, the victory parade past the Arc de Triomphe by the allies in 1919 gave this race an obvious title which the French chose. The famous monument has become an iconic race ever since and right now racing needs icons like Enable.

Maybe it is just me, but when I look back through her career and know that tomorrow will be her last race, I probably want her to win more than ever.

Any Flat horse of value being kept in training as a six-year-old to race and entertain racing fans should be shouted for. I followed Yeats for the same reason I follow Enable: We get to see them year after year as connections chose to race them rather than realise their stud values.

I know Enable is a filly and does not possess the same stud value but, had connections chosen that path, right now she could have two foals at foot and a third on the way. Instead we get to her see herself and Frankie Dettori one more time.

He has ridden her to win races every which way: From off the pace to beat Crystal Ocean in an epic King George to simply making all at Kempton. Using speed in the Eclipse and stamina at the Breeders’ Cup, exuding confidence in the English and Irish Oaks, but always the same way in France.

Frankie feels pressure, but it does not affect him. Winning excites him and losing saddens him but, for me, what sets him apart it is his ability, race after race and far more consistently than anyone else, to be in the right place and to keep things simple.

In the last three renewals of this rollercoaster race he has managed to get upsides the leader two furlongs down, on the bridle and in position A. He got home in front twice on Enable and I have no doubt that is where he will be tomorrow.

He has won the race six times since 1995 and missed out on a seventh on Treve through injury. Six wins in 25 tries is nearly a 25% strike rate in one race!

She will also bid to become the first six-year-old to win it. Motrico won his second as a seven-year-old in 1932 having won as a five-year-old in 1930.

Age is most certainly not on her side: Only eight five-year-olds have succeeded, one seven-year-old, 29 four-year-olds and 60 three-year-olds. That said, the majority of runners in the race are three or four-year-olds colts, so 24 winning fillies reads better than it looks. And, like all stats, these can be read to find whatever angle you wish.

But, put simply, 47 of the winners from 98 runnings have been three-year-old colts.

Mogul was held up and delivered inside the two pole to beat In Swoop in the Grand Prix de Paris, but Serpentine, supplemented here for €72,000 on Tuesday, was back in fourth and if I was being statistical, he would be my choice to have improved on his Parisian run which was his first outing in 71 days after his Epsom solo in the Derby.

The big loss here is obviously Love, but the market early in the week cast a doubt over her participation. It is a pity, but she does not run so why moan about it now?

What we have is 15 runners and, on paper, an easier task for Enable than she faced last year. From stall five, Frankie will slide forward and right, most probably getting Mogul, Sottsass, Raabihah, and In Swoop behind him while allowing Serpentine and maybe Sovereign across in front of him from their wide draws.

Stradivarius, from stall 14, could end up beside him but, with no Ghaiyyath or Magical to clock 10-furlong fractions in this 12-furlong contest as was the case last year, the pace won’t be as hot, so sitting in the second row will be a better position than it was last year.

Ryan Moore, on Mogul, will have a target set on Frankie’s back and will be on his coattails as they exit the short straight and face up the home stretch, heading north on the west side of the Bois de Boulogne.

But will Mogul be good enough to run Enable down? Will Stradivarius or Serpentine outstay her? Will Sottsass, In Swoop, Persian King or Raabihah sweep wide and late to mug her?

I don’t know, but I hope Enable makes it 16 wins from 19 career runs. A third Arc to go with three King Georges, three different Oaks’, an Eclipse and a Breeders Cup. She has graced the turf here in Ireland, thwarted us in the USA, destroyed horses at home in the UK and turned a grey French sky bright already.

She is a credit to John Gosden and Juddmonte Farms, but the fairytale ending would be Magical — and we know she is better than her!

I have not deliberately ducked comment on Oisin Murphy’s positive test for cocaine. Oisin has released a statement and I will adjourn comment until he has had his B sample test returned and faced his enquiry at France Gallop headquarters.

He has stated his innocence and I wish him luck because he will have to prove it.

If his B sample matches his A, the precedence of the French authorities not accepting hair samples as proof of people not being cocaine users has already been set, so how traces of cocaine ended up is his body is what he has to figure out and then to prove.

Contact tracing might actually help him.