Racing is the winner as sport's heroine remains in training

The outpouring of love and support for Enable in the run-up to, and on the day of, her bid for a historic third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe proved beyond doubt that for the first time since Frankel British Flat racing had found a superstar the public loved.

When she agonisingly lost the Arc to Waldgeist the deflation was made keener by the assumption that was probably the end of the racing road for our heroine; that we would never see Enable in action again - certainly not in Europe, at any rate.

So the decision, announced on Tuesday, that Enable would race on in 2020 and bid again to become the first horse to win a third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is as wonderfully welcome as it is surprising.