John Gosden has spoken of the decision to skip the Yorkshire Oaks in favour of a more suitable Arc prep run at Kempton Park.
She looked set to face Investec Oaks heroine Love in a blockbuster clash at the Knavesmire, but instead will take in the September Stakes prior to a bid for a third win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp.
“It was a difficult decision because I strongly feel whoever is running in the race at York, you don’t get easy races there," the trainer told Oli Bell in a video feature ahead of the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival.
“Look at last year and what my my great friend Andre Fabre did. In the King George at Ascot, Waldgeist was third, finished well, behind Enable and Crystal Ocean.
“Andre then did the correct thing and backed off his horse having won a Ganay and been third in a King George. He put him away for the whole of August, ran in the one trial in September, which he won cosily and then bang – the Arc.
"If you look down the years it makes a lot of sense to take that pause. The problem over where the Yorkshire Oaks is it’s that six weeks before the Arc. So you have to build up to the race, we’d be doing that now, then let down again before building up again.
“This way I can just tick along and play in, build into Kempton, which is in September and the key point, and then use that as a springboard as we did before.
"We're not running away from the Oaks winner (Love), absolutely not, but if they did run in the Yorkshire Oaks together on decent ground they’d have a hard race. That’s not what I need to do with a filly like Enable.
"I can’t tell you who’d beat who but they'd have a hard race. From Enable’s point of view the owner has been so sporting in keeping her in training, she used the Eclipse as a prep and won her third King George and I owe it to the filly to find a pleasant way to the Arc which is why she was kept in training.
"That’s what I'm trying to do in this situation. When people say 'they’re being cowardly' that’s not the point. I’m trying to do the best for my filly.
"Maybe she could beat Love, maybe Love could beat her, I don’t know, but they’d both have a hard race and that’s not what I need at this time of year when I’m trying to win an Arc with a filly who let’s face it is six years old now, she’s not that wild, three-year-old that would run through anything.
“She just roared through that season and everything came easily to her. It doesn’t come so easily to her now."
