IT’S an over-used and inaccurate phrase, she lost nothing in defeat, because she did, she lost the race. But Enable was brave and gallant and her reputation wasn’t tarnished an iota.

It is a pity that she didn’t win it. We know that. It would have been a special feat, three Arcs. An achievement that would have been without precedent. But Enable has won two Arcs and finished second in a third, and that’s also special.

Reasons for her defeat? She probably wasn’t at her absolute pinnacle and Waldgeist was. She didn’t travel with her usual verve. The Racing Post Rating that she was awarded for Sunday’s performance is the lowest that she has been awarded since she won the Irish Oaks at the Curragh in July 2017.

By contrast, Waldgeist’s was a career-high. He is a top class horse, a quadruple Group 1 winner now himself. We know that Andre Fabre is an Arc master, and he had his horse at concert pitch.

You can pick things apart when hindsight talks, and maybe the inside rail was not the place to be. It may have been down to pace as much as down to track position, but winners finishing strongly down the outside was a common theme of the day.

With the benefit of hindsight, you can say that she hit the front too early, off the fast pace and on the holding ground. But it was a legitimate strategy. She led at the two-furlong marker too when she won the Eclipse, she led at the two-furlong marker when she won the Breeders’ Cup Turf, she led at the two-furlong marker when she won her first Arc. She made all when she won the Yorkshire Oaks. On both occasions.

Also when Enable hit the front, she looked the most likely winner by far. She traded at an in-running low of 1.07, that’s 1/14. That’s how highly her chance was rated by the market when she hit the front. The market didn’t think in real time that she had hit the front too early.

She is still an extraordinary mare, she has won 13 of her 15 races, including 10 Group 1s. Two Arcs, two King Georges, an Eclipse, a Breeders’ Cup Turf, and that’s still special.