SPEAKING of the Arc, strange that bookmakers took the opportunity to shorten Enable’s odds further for the race after she won the Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday.

She was impressive of course, Frankie Dettori kicked her in the belly at flagfall, and she never saw a rival. However, she achieved no more than we knew she was well capable of achieving in beating her stable companion Coronet by five lengths, with Queen’s Trust and Nezwaah and Alluringly behind.

John Gosden’s filly’s best performance to date remains her King George performance, when she beat Ulysses and Idaho and Highland Reel. It is on that performance that her Arc prospects are founded. She is tough too – the King George came up just two weeks after she had clocked top figures in the Irish Oaks.

Indeed, you could argue that her Arc prospects were enhanced more by Ulysses’ win in the Juddmonte International on Wednesday than they were by her own performance on Thursday, for all that the Juddmonte was run over 10 and a half furlongs, and that the 12 furlongs on soft ground at Ascot in the King George may have stretched Sir Michael Stoute’s horse’s stamina beyond its limit.

Of course, it is correct that Enable is a short price for the Arc, not only because of her own progress, but also because the potential opposition appears to be weaker than it was three weeks ago.

Almanzor was beaten and has been retired, Brametot was beaten, Ulysses will probably be targeted at the Breeders’ Cup, Cracksman, the filly’s stable companion, is not certain to go to Chantilly. Enable gets the fillies’ allowance and the three-year-olds’ allowance, and they are saying that she could be the best ever. It is difficult to pick holes.