Mike Cattermole says Enable is carrying the 2017 Classic generation in this week's column

Enable carrying her generation

She was absolutely brilliant wasn’t she? Enable carried off the Arc in the style that the formbook suggested she was perfectly entitled to do so. She duly pulled it off to make history at Chantilly.

Quite honestly, all of those end-of-season doubts never looked like being borne out – at any stage - as John Gosden had clearly done a great job on her and Frankie Dettori reciprocated.

Treve was offered at 4/1 to win the following year’s Arc after her first win in 2013 but the best I can find for Enable is 7/2. If she gets there, she will go off a lot shorter than that – or will she? I thought the same about Treve who was an 11/1 shot when she followed up after a below-par season!

In the meantime, the overwhelming hope is that Enable stays in training as there is so much she can do. Seeing her taking on the next generation - over a variety of trips - will be every flat racing fan’s dream.

Twice Enable has taken on and demolished her elders, something that other members of her generation have palpably failed to do. Only Winter in the Nassau and Al Wukair in the Jacques le Marois (just one older horse, Taareef, there) have beaten the older horses.

Looking back now to the Classics earlier in the season, Churchill was such an emphatic winner of the Guineas that many believed he would dismiss the older horses when given the chance, but both he and Newmarket runner-up Barney Roy simply have not been up to it.

Churchill has failed twice, in the Juddmonte and the Irish Champion Stakes, while Barney Roy may have just lost out to Ulysses in the Eclipse but was put in his place by the same horse at York.

We have mentioned Guineas third Al Wukair above but Guineas fourth Lancaster Bomber was sixth in the Sussex and second in the Woodbine Mile, while the fifth Dream Castle was recently beaten into second in the Group Two Topkapi Trophy in Turkey.

The Derby form makes interesting reading now too as the season enters its twilight. Wings Of Eagles was cruelly denied the chance but Epsom runner-up Cliffs Of Moher has been beaten in three all-aged races since.

Fourth Eminent won a Group Two at Deauville but that was against his peers and he was held in the Eclipse and Irish Champion while the fifth, Benbatl, was well beaten in the King George and also when surprisingly dropped back in trip in the Superior Mile at Haydock.

So, that leaves Derby third Cracksman, who faces the test for the first time in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot in just over two weeks. He is one of 15 three-year-olds of the 26 left in the race on Tuesday at the latest forfeit stage of the £1.3m showpiece.

I suppose, given what happened on Sunday, that the controversial decision not to take in the Arc with the son of Frankel is a little easier to understand now.

However, you wouldn’t be filled with confidence about his prospects given how his male classmates have fared to date. Yet he is trading as short as 5/2 favourite in some places for this (although 7/2 with Sky Bet).

At the moment, I am looking at some of the older stars as there has got to be some value out there. Poet’s Word is 8/1 with Sky Bet and yet the horse that beat him in the Irish Champion can be backed at 16/1.

Yes, Decorated Knight has won three Group One’s this season and will be fighting for some overdue recognition in a fortnight’s time.

He could of course succumb to “Frankel fever”, which seems to pervade on this day, as a win for Cracksman would be that important first Group One win in Europe that Frankel fans are hoping for.

Enable: 3/1 for the 2018 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Sky Bet

Battaash was stunning

You have to hand it to Charlie Hills who insisted that Battaash had run below form at York because he had boiled over and that he would have him back for the Abbaye after freshening him up. He sure did!

Battaash is not an imposing horse but he looked in fantastic shape as he was led out quietly and riderless from the parade ring.

Then it was over to Jim Crowley who had to mount him down the walkway and make sure that he kept the lid on him as he took him to post. Apart from a slight hesitation when first presented to the stalls, it all went to plan and the explosion of speed he displayed will live with me for a long time.

Although the ground was on the soft side, his winning time was only slightly slower than Marsha’s 12 months earlier on good ground.

The son of Dark Angel is clearly blessed with a rare talent and how much fun are we going to have watching him race on! There is not stud career for him of course and he could be around for a long time, if he can be kept sound - and cool.

A clash with Harry Angel will not be happening at Ascot as Battaash is not entered. The hope is that Harry will carry on next year before heading off to the breeding sheds.

Battaash: 3/1 for the 2018 King's Stand at Sky Bet

Rab Havlin - welcome back

I wrote recently about the plight of Rab Havlin who returns to the saddle this week after being off since January, serving a ban for apparently doing nothing wrong.

I have no idea how much it has hit him in the pocket but pretty hard is my guess.

You would have thought, given that and all of the aggro he has been through with appeals to France Galop, the BHA and the like, that he might be feeling pretty angry about it all. But his demeanour throughout the last few months has been exceptional – and extraordinary.

When he spoke to me on At The Races on Wednesday, there was no sign of bitterness at all, just an eagerness to get his career back on track .

“You can’t look at the road behind you, you must look forward,” he said.

What an example of how to behave.

Rab Havlin's mount Heather Lark: 11/8 for the 6.45 Chelmsford Thursday

Pat Smullen has a fight on his hands

As a nine-time champion jockey in Ireland, Pat Smullen is a bit of a legend and at last his considerable skills are being called upon a little more often these days in Britain.

However, Smullen is being kept up to his work back home right now as he trails Colin Keane (80-76 at the time of writing) in this year’s championship.

Keane has yet to hit the heights in the big races yet (he has yet to ride a Group One winner) but he and Ger Lyons have enjoyed another brilliant season together.

Lyons is some way behind Aidan O’Brien in terms of winners but he is in second place right now and the vast majority of them have been ridden by Keane, who won the champion apprentice title in 2014.

By the way, Keane, 24, is often referred to as “Trim jockey” and that’s not because of his slight frame but because he hails from Trim in County Meath!

It should be a great battle over the last month of the season.