Home News Enable, Magical and Star Catcher line up for coveted 29th Cartier Horse...

News

Enable, Magical and Star Catcher line up for coveted 29th Cartier Horse of the year awards

November 11, 2019

By Andrew Atkinson racing correspondent fromthehorsesmouth.tips

THREE superstar females feature among the nominations for the 29th Cartier Horse Of The Year, with Enable, Magical and Star Catcher lining up for the coveted award, on Tuesday November 12.

“We have been fortunate to witness another fabulous year in European Flat racing, with outstanding performances from the nominees across all categories of the Cartier Racing Awards.

“I would like to thank all racing enthusiasts for their input, via the public voting system, which plays such an important role in determining the winners at the Cartier Racing Awards,” Harry Herbert, Cartier’s Racing Consultant told fromthehorsesmouth.tips.

Enable, who was crowned Cartier Horse Of The Year and Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly in 2017 and Cartier Older Horse in 2018, added a further three G1 wins to her CV in 2019 under Frankie Dettori.

The John Gosden-trained five-year-old mare, homebred by owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, recorded victories in the Coral-Eclipse, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes and Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Career earnings surpass £10 million.

Magical, trained by Aidan O’Brien for a Coolmore syndicate, was a three-time G1 winner this year. Enable’s three-year-old stablemate Star Catcher won three times at the highest level.

The male contenders for Cartier Horse Of The Year include superstar stayer Stradivarius, also trained by Gosden.

Bjorn Nielsen’s five-year-old won five of his six starts this year and landed the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers Million for the second year in succession, as well as the traditional Stayers Triple Crown.

Also nominated are Godolphin’s outstanding sprinter Blue Point and Waldgeist, trained by Andre Fabre for Gestut Ammerland & Newsells Park, who achieved success in Europe’s richest race – the G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The 29th annual Cartier Racing Awards will be presented at a glittering ceremony before an invited audience of 300 at the Dorchester, London.

The longstanding and prestigious awards were established in 1991, to reward excellence in horseracing.

There are eight equine awards – the Cartier Horse Of The Year, the Cartier Older Horse, the Cartier Sprinter, the Cartier Stayer, the Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt, the Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly, the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt and the Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly.

Public voting for the Cartier Racing Awards opened on October 23 and ran until November 5.

The participation of the public plays a crucial role in determining the winners of each year’s Cartier Racing Awards and gives horseracing fans the chance to put forward their favourite horses.

In addition to the equine awards, the Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit goes to the person or persons who, in the opinion of the special 16-strong Cartier Jury, has/have done the most for European racing and/or breeding either over their lifetime or within the past 12 months.

The 10 most recent recipients have been David Oldrey, Sir Michael Stoute, Aidan O’Brien, Jack Berry, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Jim Bolger, Team Frankel, Barry Hills, Richard Hannon and John Oxx.

Blue Point, Enable, Magical, Stradivarius and Waldgeist also feature among the nominees for Cartier Older Horse, where they are joined by Crystal Ocean. Homebred by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the highlight of Crystal Ocean’s season came when successful in the G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, when he got the better of Magical.

The Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt category sees two nominees from the Ballydoyle team in Circus Maximus and Japan, both dual G1 winners. They are joined by two John Gosden-trained colts in Logician, who ended an unbeaten campaign with victory in the G1 William Hill St Leger and Too Darn Hot. Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Too Darn Hot, who bagged the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt award in 2018, bounced back with two G1 successes in 2019, including the Qatar Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.

In the Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly division, Star Catcher is joined by her stablemate and G1 Investec Oaks heroine Anapurna. QIPCO 1,000 Guineas and Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Hermosa and Iridessa, the only European-trained winner at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, are also nominated.

Blue Point also features the nominees for Cartier Sprinter along with Advertise, who was twice a winner at G1 level, impressive G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes victor Battaash and So Perfect, who was very consistent throughout the season.

Stradivarius is also a nominee for Cartier Stayer, an award he won 12 months ago, along with Dee Ex Bee, his Ascot conqueror Kew Gardens and Logician.

Godolphin is doubly represented in the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt division with Earthlight and Pinatubo. Both sons of Shamardal, they each went through 2019 unbeaten and were successful twice in G1 company.

The G1 Vertem Futurity Stakes victor Kameko and Siskin, who was unbeaten in four starts including the G1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, are also nominated.

In the Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly division, G1 scorers Albigna and Quadrilateral both go forward, where they are joined by two nominees who went down with considerable credit at the very highest level – Daayeh and Raffle Prize.