Toughest of the tough: defeat didn't dim the brilliance of wonder mare Enable

There's a concept in racing – let's call it 'the tyranny of the unbeaten horse' - that has a lot to answer for. In short, it dictates that an exciting youngster, having racked up the requisite (usually quite small) number of winning appearances, becomes less of a racehorse and more of a precious commodity to be shielded from undue risk and spared, if at all possible, the ignominy of defeat.

Mostly they get beaten in the end, but that's seen as no reason not to shunt aside the fundamental aim of racing – that of testing good horses to the full in order to establish the extent of their ability – and replace it with the rather weedy ambition of retaining a creature's mystique by allowing it to operate solely within its comfort zone.

Perhaps it's because she's a mare, perhaps because she was (quite remarkably, with hindsight) beaten on her second start, but Enable has never been wrapped in cotton wool. With one of the game's most enduringly sporting men as her owner and one of its most prescient trainers at the helm of her career, she has been afforded the opportunity to establish beyond doubt the breadth and depth of her talent; and after an unaccustomed defeat on her final start of 2019 – in a Parisian quagmire as she chased an historic third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe – followed by a breathless wait for news, the word came from on high that she would be allowed to battle on in 2020, with the quest renewed.