IRISH-BRED and trained horses were to the fore at the 27th annual Cartier Racing Awards, European horseracing’s equivalent of the Oscars, which were presented at a glittering ceremony before an invited audience of 300 people at the Dorchester Hotel, London on Tuesday. On a night when equine superstars were celebrated, the biggest cheer of the evening was when Sir Michael Stoute was named as the recipient of the Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit.

Enable was crowned Cartier Horse Of The Year and Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly following a superb 2017 that saw the daughter of Nathaniel, owned and bred by Prince Khalid Abdullah, trained by John Gosden and ridden by Frankie Dettori, win five Group 1 races - the Investec Oaks, Darley Irish Oaks, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO), Darley Yorkshire Oaks and Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.