Enable lands historic second King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes success at Ascot

In what turned out to be a memorable battle between the two horses, the race favourite, ridden by Frankie Dettori for trainer John Gosden, just did enough to take create a piece of history by beating Sir Michael Stoute’s valiant runner up ridden by James Doyle.

The Andre Fable-trained Waldgeist was third as 2017 winner Enable clocked up an 11th straight win and a ninth consecutive Group One triumph.

Enable found herself wider than ideal through the early stages as Norway – one of four contenders trained by Aidan O’Brien – made the early running. After O’Brien’s Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck dropped away, it was all between Enable and Crystal Ocean who both went to the front in the home straight.

With a quarter of a mile to go, the battle intensified for what turned out to be a classic head-to-head racing contest and although Crystal Ocean briefly headed Enable, the winner fought back and took the race only by a neck. Waldgeist, with Pierre-Charles Boudot in the saddle, was a length and three-quarters further back from the front two in third.

A naturally delighted Dettori had called his mount “the darling of racing” before the mile-and-a-half contest, worth £1.25m in prize money, and said to her after victory by a neck: “I love you baby.”

“I’m exhausted, emotionally exhausted too. I’m lost for words. She is loved by everyone.

“She’s brilliant. The second [Crystal Ocean] is a great horse, I knew he was the one to beat. We gave the public what they came to see, and they got a fantastic horse race.”

Dettori, who has won more than 3,000 races in his career, said the 2019 King George was the toughest top-level contest he had experienced and that Crystal Ocean – who was also second last year, to Poet’s Word – was “like one of those flies that wasn’t going away”.

Enable now remains on track to aim for an unprecedented third success in Europe’s richest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, in October.

Gosden, who indicated York’s Ebor meeting next month remained on the agenda as her next outing, said: “She’s a brave and wonderful filly, and what a great battle with Crystal Ocean.

“Crystal Ocean showed all the courage in the world, and the first two are wonderful – they put up a great King George.”

Saturday’s eight race card at Ascot also saw the running of the Longines Handicap for Lady Amateur Riders which saw a convincing success for the Dianne Sayer’s Redarna.

Ridden by Miss Emma Sayer, the winner came in a comfortable two and a half lengths clear of the favourite Shady McCoy, with Fieldsman trailing a further three-quarters of a length back in third.