'I love her so much': Frankie Dettori reveals why Enable means so much to him

Jockeys on the whole tend not to fall in love with horses. For them it's more a marriage of convenience, a hop on and hop off kind of relationship, a new assignation every half an hour and no time to grow attached. With Frankie Dettori and Enable, however, it's different – the golden couple of British racing have fallen for each other hard; unwisely, perhaps, given that in the best traditions of the romantic novel their true love looks doomed to end abruptly after a final heart-rending tryst in Paris on Sunday.

Dettori has already shown the first signs of emotional turmoil. When they last met in public, in York in the summer, he was barely able to fight back the tears as an adoring crowd roared its appreciation for what everybody seemed to know would be their last outing on home shores. Maybe there will be a surprise rendezvous in California once France has faded into the autumn mist, but Enable will soon leave us, bound for a new career in which her partner of three glorious seasons can have no part.

He still loves her, though, although to hear him talk about her it's hard to imagine why.