Standing ovation for Pat Smullen as racing hails the brilliant and brave

As Frankie Dettori has been happy to remind us all year, Enable has taken him to areas of his emotions that he had never before explored. Her titanic tussle with Crystal Ocean in the King George was a rollercoaster ride for the senses; her 'lap of honour' at York took the highly charged Italian into overload; even defeat in the Arc could be taken as proof positive of the hold one great horse can take on our lives.

Frankie went on an epic journey in 2019 with the daughter of Nathaniel and he took us with him all the way, so for us all to celebrate her second Horse of the Year crown at the 29th Cartier Awards evening seemed both inevitable and thoroughly fitting.

There could have been no other winner than Enable. Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, reminded us of the "waves of pleasure that people have got from her" and the "gamut of emotions and special places" she opened up for her connections and admirers. John Gosden explained the "good pressure" of masterminding the career of such a public horse. Her devoted groom Imran Shahwani, by video, made the forceful point that she had already beaten her Arc conqueror Waldgeist three times, while Gosden chipped in that there's no law dictating that the winning of three Arcs has to be done in successive years.