Enable is an all-time great but Waldgeist has also put his name into the history books
The spine tingled, the nerves jangled and the hairs on top of the neck stood to attention like the soldiers on Horse Guards Parade.
All the news, hype and furore surrounding Enable were realised.
She ran as hard as she was able in yesterday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and produced a performance grittier than ever before.
The crowd’s cacophony chanted her name and the bumper audience shook the stands, the English contingent making up nearly half of the assembled.
It was a racing occasion with a welcome only equalled by the roar preceding the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Unlike last year, John Gosden had prepared the apple of his eye to the minute.
Victories in the Eclipse, King George and Yorkshire Oaks proved she was ready and raring to go for her shot at history.
But, like so many sporting occasions when the hype reaches fever-pitch, the end result was one of heightened disappointment.
The great mare battled hard but had no answers to the superior stamina of an animal who reached the zenith of his ability at exactly the right moment.
However, there was no shame in defeat.
Waldgeist is a horse who’d won four of his six starts at Longchamp.
He was the only runner in the race for a French genius seeking a record-breaking eighth victory and prepared for the contest by winning the Prix Foy in a canter.
Ultimately, though, he was the best horse in the conditions. And that’s all that matters.
Enable notched her first Oaks as the rain lashed down, landed her first Arc victory in soft conditions and won her first King George in the slop.
She was no stranger to a mudbath either, and for all that her turn of foot was quite clearly blunted, the winner’s was too.
He outstayed, out-muscled and out-powered her, and that’s what was required to win the 2019 running of the great race.
The whingers and whiners will complain it’s not a fair reflection of ability, that the speed of the big players was dulled to too great an extent.
But that’s not the point.
Waldgeist was the best horse in the world on Sunday over 1m4f in very soft ground.
He should get the credit he deserves.
Those trying to dampen his achievement need only look at the distance he put between top class three-year-olds Sottsass and Japan. He thrashed them.
Plaudits, too, must go to Pierre-Charles Boudot.
The beast from Burgundy rides Longchamp better than anyone and has surely now overtaken his colleagues Christophe Soumillon and Mickael Barzalona as the best jockey in France – if not the world.
Six victories over the weekend cemented the fact.
Both he and trainer Andre Fabre are masters of their craft and it shouldn’t be forgotten that Fabre is in the Sir Michael Stoute league when it comes to improving horses from four to five.
He’s never given up the faith with Waldgeist and it was a pleasure to see his patience rewarded.