Enable Comeback Delayed Further with Eclipse Stakes the New Plan

The racing public are going to have to wait a little longer before they see superstar mare Enable back on a racecourse after connections decided to delay her reappearance again. They have decided that she will not be ready to take her place at Royal Ascot next month, and instead have named the Eclipse Stakes as her new seasonal reappearance target.

This comes after already changing plans earlier this season. She was due to reappear this weekend in the Coronation Stakes at Epsom, but that was changed after she was slow to come to hand, with John Gosden deciding a little more time and a tilt at Royal Ascot would be better for her. Now the Ascot plan has been changed and it is again due to her not showing enough at home to suggest she is ready.

Frankie Dettori did a piece of work on her this week, and after jumping off the horse both Dettori and Gosden agreed that she would not be fit and ready enough to take her place at Royal Ascot. Instead the new target is the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown which is at the beginning of July, around two weeks after Royal Ascot.

Her main target remains the Arc at Longchamp, a race she would be aiming to win for the third consecutive season.

The Eclipse is a race that Gosden has tasted success in before, winning it three times in the last seven years, including last year with the hugely talented Roaring Lion. There is a big chance that she will take on some of this year’s classic generation in the race, with it being open to three year olds but older horses do have a great record in the race. Five year olds have won the race four times in the last nine years, which bodes well for the mare.

As soon as the news was announced, Enable was shortened for the Eclipse and the best price you will find for her is 3/1, and she is the favourite with all bookmakers. She has shown that she can be a little slow to hand as we saw last season, and there is no need to rush this horse with her main target being at the end of the season. For now, racing fans are going to have to wait a little longer to see this superstar in action on the trace.