Dettori left fighting back the tears as Enable delights him and us yet again

It started about a furlong and a half from home. Suddenly, as if instructed by a conductor, the thousands of admirers in York's handsome grandstands began to fill the racecourse with the wonderful sound of heartfelt applause. A nagging anxiety had been lifted.

In its place a communal salutation carried Enable to the winning post and beyond. It was about the past and the present, for they were thanking an exceptional horse for what she had done on this and other days, but it was also about the future, for they were wishing her well ahead of the great mission still to come.

BHA chief executive Nick Rust hands out Enable flags at YorkCredit: Edward Whitaker

The betting had suggested this latest assignment represented little more than a penalty kick, but there was much more to the Yorkshire Oaks than that.