There have been many great racing horses
throughout history. Desert Orchid, Frankel, Red Rum, and many more. While
Enbihaar may not have done enough to rank among such company, the five-year-old
mare showed tremendous potential, winning seven out of her twelve races. Thus,
it is a shame that a minor injury forced the Irish beauty out of this year’s Prix
de Royallieu and into subsequent retirement.
Trained by the legendary John Gosden, and
ridden by the former British champion, Jim
Crowley, Enbihaar was having a terrific summer, until it came time to call
it quits. She was the favorite to win the 2,800-meter Paris race, according to odds
via saturdayracingtips.com.
However, Wonderful Tonight took advantage of Enbihaar’s absence and took home
the 150,000-franc prize.
Now that we won’t be seeing Enbihaar on the
tracks anymore, it may be a good time to look over her greatest races.
Lonsdale Cup 2020
Formerly known as the Lonsdale Stakes, the
August event is a flat race open to horses aged three years or older. The race
takes place on the third day of York‘s four-day Ebor Festival, with the leading
horses going to compete at the Doncaster Cup, the following month.
The 2020 race happened on August 21st,
at 9 AM. Enbihaar solidified her role as
a 3 to 1 favorite by winning first place on a rainy morning, with Stratum,
ridden by Jason Watson coming in second place, to everyone’s surprise. Sadly,
this terrific showing will go down as Enbihaar’s last great win.
Lillie Langtry Stakes 2020
Established in 2003, this is another Group
2 flat race, open to mares added three years or older. The participants run on
the Goodwood Racecourse
track and compete for the first-place prize of £70,888. In 2019, Enbihaar took
first place with a time of 2:58:69, and a year later, she repeated the success,
even though she ran the track five seconds slower.
Roger Varian’s Cabaletta took second place,
and Aidan P. O’Brien’s Snow came third. At the start, it was Snow who set the
pace, but Enbihaar kept at the heels of the 1-2 favorite, biding her time. When
the moment was right, she quickly went by the long-time leader, completing
back-to-back victories in the Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes.
Lancashire Oaks 2019
Lancashire Oaks in Haydock Park is one of
the oldest horse races in Britain. The first version of the race happened in
the 19th century. However, in 1939, the race was re-established and
run at the Manchester Racecourse, until it moved to Haydock park in 1965.
What makes the 2019 race special is that
Enbihaar won its trainer Gosden his record eighth victory in Lancashire Oaks.
He took over Sir Henry Cecil’s tally of seven and went down in history.
Enbihaar was among the favorites to win and was never far behind the leader,
Dramatic Queen, who didn’t go down without a fight. In the end, much to
Gosden’s delight, Enbihaar crossed the finish line with a time of 2:30.63.
