Enable beaten again as Ghaiyyath wins Eclipse Stakes at Sandown

Enable was beaten for the second race in a row and only the third time in her career in the Group One Eclipse Stakes here on Sunday, when she finished just over two lengths behind the frontrunning Ghaiyyath without ever looking likely to reel him in. Enable remains the clear favourite for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes later this month, however, with John Gosden, her trainer, insisting that she will be fitter and sharper at Ascot with her six-year-old debut behind her.

Ghaiyyath was many lengths behind Enable in last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe but the five-year-old has looked like both a stronger and more reliable performer in his two races so far this summer.

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His most impressive victories have often been followed by subpar runs next time, but Sunday’s success came just 30 days after a dominant victory in the Coronation Cup at Newmarket, adding to the hopes of Charlie Appleby, his trainer, that Ghaiyyath now has the maturity to stand regular racing.

William Buick was in front within the first furlong on the 9-4 second-favourite, and while Enable and Japan, last year’s International Stakes winner, made some ground in the straight, their runs came up short before Ghaiyyath faced a serious challenge.

“This year he seems to be taking his races better,” Appleby said. “We toyed with the idea of going for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes [at Royal Ascot] after the Coronation Cup, but we thought we’d give ourselves an extra couple of weeks and we know this track can favour a frontrunner.

“The Juddmonte International at York would be up there [for his next race] but you don’t beat Enable having an easy run, so we’ll see where we are over the next week and then decide whether he needs a bit more time.”

Gosden felt Enable, the even‑money favourite, had “run the most perfect race to point towards the King George”, in which she will attempt to become the first horse to win the Ascot showpiece three times.

“We know Ghaiyyath,” Gosden said, “and as I warned everybody, it is a great frontrunners’ track, Sandown. If he gets free on the front, as he is a fabulous horse, you are never going to get to him.

“Frankie [Dettori] said that in the last half-furlong, she just needed it, so he looked after her. We knew coming [into the race] we were 85%, and you are not going to beat a frontrunning horse like that around here.”

Despite Enable’s defeat, Gosden added another Group One winner to his extensive record when Mishriff survived a stewards’ inquiry to give the trainer his first win in the Prix du Jockey Club (the French Derby) at Chantilly.

The most remarkable success of the day, however, was recorded by Fancy Blue in the Prix de Diane (the French Oaks), who gave Donnacha O’Brien a first Classic victory as a trainer with only his second winner on turf, in one of the few European Group One contests that his father, Aidan, has yet to win.