Will John Gosden Enable the big clash in King George at Ascot?

So, it looks like it’s back on. Granted, it’s hardly a U-turn of Theresa May-style proportions, but Enable’s connections were firmly leaning away from a King George tilt in the afterglow of her Irish Oaks win and now it’s looking more than likely that she’ll run.

Well, John Gosden says a final decision will be made on Wednesday, but his quotes from an At The Races interview on Monday morning suggest he’s already dusting off the big dice. Just look at the evidence.

Exhibit one: "There was a big gap between the Oaks and the Irish Oaks so it’s not like she’s been over-raced this season."

Exhibit two: "There’s quite a gap now to the Yorkshire Oaks. We feel with her that two weeks will be enough as long as we’re happy with her."

Exhibit three: “She goes on most ground. She’s won on 'Good to Firm' and 'Good', her father went in the soft and her broodmare sire Sadler’s Wells obviously handled that too, so I think she will be all right."

The caveat: "I have to make it clear that the matter has to be discussed and confirmed with the owner to see how they feel about it."

You get the feeling, though, Prince Khalid Abdullah’s arm won’t need too much twisting. And this is great news for Ascot and the King George. The midsummer highlight simply needs the daughter of Nathaniel to line up.

Without her it would be a good renewal, at best. We might get the chance to laud Highland Reel again; his consistency, his bravery, his constitution. We might get the chance to celebrate Sir Michael Stoute as the most successful trainer in the history of the race, if he wins it for a sixth time, as his Ulysses is bidding to follow in the hoofprints of his Opera House, the last horse to do the Coral-Eclipse and King George double back in 1993.

They are good stories. But the best King George stories involve a clash of the generations. Classic head-to-heads. Like Grundy v Bustino. The Minstrel v Orange Bay. Dancing Brave v Shardari. Mtoto v Unfuwain. Galileo v Fantastic Light. Nathaniel v Workforce. Taghrooda v Telescope. They were the best stories.

Those last two are important. Nathaniel and Taghrooda are the only two three-year-olds to win the King George in the last 13 renewals and both were trained by Gosden. Nathaniel is Enable’s sire. Taghrooda became just the second filly to win the Oaks and the King George in the same season after Pawneese in 1976.

Enable, undoubtedly, has the guns to follow in the footsteps of both of them. It’s just a question of timing, if her team want to unleash her against her elders now, or wait until the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the autumn, via the easier-on-paper assignment that is the Yorkshire Oaks.

Thankfully for racing fans and for Ascot, it’s looking like she’s giving off the right signals at home. A cut on her leg, sustained in her Irish Oaks romp, healed quickly and Gosden says ‘she’s fresh and very well’. It’s looking good.

A clash of the generations looks very much on. And, even before the unfortunate early retirement of Investec Derby winner Wings Of Eagles, it looked more likely that the ultra-impressive Oaks winner Enable would be the one to carry the three-year-old sword into battle against the older horses this season.

There are some tough and more experienced opponents likely to be in opposition if Enable does turn up on Saturday. Stablemate Jack Hobbs, the Eclipse winner Ulysses, Godolphin’s Frontiersman. Fellow three-year-olds Benbatl and Permian bring very solid recent form to the table, too.

But, like some of those old King Georges listed above, it’s those head-to-head battles we remember the most fondly and if Enable is to be involved in a ding-dong with one horse on Saturday, that rival is most likely to be the honest and tough and talented Highland Reel (the pair are currently joint 7/4 favourites at Sky Bet, as the bookies struggle to split the big two in the ante-post market).

He seems to have taken a while to have built up a fan club but the applications are flowing in thick and fast now. The globetrotting six-time Group One winner is two from two this summer, winning the Coronation Cup at Epsom just minutes after stepping off the truck before dropping back to 10 furlongs without fuss at Royal Ascot.

If there is one thing he hasn’t done, it’s win any sort of race on testing ground. He’s never run on anything worse than yielding, indeed he’s really struggled on that sort of surface. The 18mm of rain at Ascot over the weekend, turning the ground soft, doesn’t suit, and even a few drying days isn’t going to see the turf become rattling quick.

We need the Gosden go-ahead on Wednesday for Enable. We need the weather to play ball and deliver something like ‘Good’ ground that's fair for all come Saturday afternoon. We need the Highland Reel that turned up at Epsom and Royal Ascot to deliver again on the biggest stage, granted the sort of conditions we know he can handle.

The third one looks a given. If the first two come in as well we could be in for a humdinger, Enable v Highland Reel, a clash of the generations, another King George for the ages. Without her it won’t generate anywhere the same excitement.

Let’s hope she gets the green light.