WE all have races and horses which sealed our love of the game at an early stage. For my generation, there was Red Rum vs Crisp and Grundy vs Bustino in the mid-1970s (I was a precocious type). For future ones, Enable vs Crystal Ocean may serve the same sort of role following their epic duel in the closing stages of last Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

More accomplished wordsmiths than I have already painted pictures of how things unfolded, of how Crystal Ocean (officially the highest rated horse in the world going into the race) struck for home on straightening up, was soon headed by the dual Arc winner Enable, but then came back to battle nose to nose until the mare got on top close home. I can at least provide some numbers.

Numbers sometimes dampen the initial euphoria by introducing a dose of reality, and as a result are not always popular but facts and numbers are necessary if we are to place Saturday’s race properly into context.

Fast pace

It was a race run at a fast pace and which resulted in a very good, but not quite outstanding, time. Norway went fast enough in the lead that every horse ended up with a finishing speed slower than its average race speed, with those behind the first three paying significantly in rain-softened conditions.

Enable, Crystal Ocean and eventual third placed Waldgeist were quite rightly no closer than mid-division until the turn-in. Enable then put in a 12.4s furlong by my reckoning to nose ahead (official sectionals look slightly suspect), followed by 12.7s and 13.55s, that last time enough to extend an advantage of barely a head to a neck come the line, without Dettori being unduly hard on Enable.

Crystal Ocean’s figures come in at 12.65s, 12.7s and 13.6s, and Waldgeist managed 12.75s, 12.85s and 13.45s, as he closed slightly at the finish. There were seven lengths and more back to the remainder, among whom Morando, Defoe and the Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck clearly failed to give their running.

The overall time was a massive 5.63s (around 30 lengths) quicker than the useful handicap which wrapped up the card, though conditions may have deteriorated slightly in between.

I have a 126 timefigure on Enable for this, edged up to 127, with Crystal Ocean and Waldgeist confirming their pre-race figures of 129 and 127 respectively (they both conceded 3lbs to the winner). Other figures produced by Ascot have the winner travelling three-quarters of a length further than the second, by the way.

In behind, Salouen (113, upgraded to 116 on sectionals) and Hunting Horn (113/118) performed perfectly well but were simply outclassed when it really mattered.

It is hard to rate Enable one of the all-time greats on this effort in isolation, with her four-and-a-half-length defeat of Ulysses in this race and clear-cut first Arc win two years earlier more deserving in that regard.

But she met a top-notcher and a near-top-notcher at the top of their games and turned them away, showing guts to go with her brilliance. It is a race that will, rightly, live long in the memory.