To breed more like Enable

THERE was a general dismay in many quarters when it was announced that Crystal Ocean, a Group 1 winner over 10 furlongs, was being retired to the National Hunt stallion ranks.

Then, in the Arc, Enable was beaten by a horse who had won a Group 1 at two, but over 10 furlongs in soft ground. Waldgeist’s best season was as a five-year-old, so what stud fate awaits him is still to become known, even as a son of Galileo.

Predictably, a host of younger colts, all successful at less than a mile, are gaining places at stud. It’s worth taking a glance again at the pedigree of Enable - surely the horse anyone would seek to breed. Her sire Nathaniel didn’t even win a race until the April of his three-year-old season.

Not only that, her dam Concentric won on her debut - but it was also in the April of her three-year-old season, in a mile and two furlong race in very soft going.

Prince Khalid Abdullah’s sporting decision to keep Enable going as a six-year-old was widely applauded this week. Their breeding decisions also deserve praise.

If we want enduring champions we need those like Juddmonte to breed them.

IT’S not been a great season for the three-year-old colts. And the milers have proved particularly disappointing.

Spinning back to the three Guineas, it looked like we had three quality colts when Magna Grecia, Persian King and Phoenix of Spain were all successful.

Slow to get his season off the mark, Too Darn Hot moved to the top of the tree by the time we got to Goodwood. He was retired injured afterwards but that was further than the French Guineas winner Persian King managed.

Phoenix Of Spain didn’t build on his Irish Guineas win and Magna Grecia has been absent since the Curragh in May. Possibly the best of the three-year-olds, Circus Maximus is absent but a field of 16 for the QEII today shows how open the division is. You would hope the classic winners would come to the fore.