Greatest? Enable races into history in US days after Winx triumph
Wonder mare Winx wowed the world with her easy Cox Plate triumph at Moonee Valley late in October.
Her northern hemisphere equivalent, Enable, produced a similarly jaw dropping performance at Churchill Downs, Kentucky, early on Sunday morning when she took out the Breeders' Cup Turf Classic for UK trainer John Gosden.
Gosden will saddle Muntahaa in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, and his attention will now switch to the Australian race, one of the few great contests around the world he has yet to win.
But he can be proud of his work with Enable, who overcame a lengthy injury lay off before emerging as good as ever late in the European turf season.
She saw off the Coolmore filly Magical in a driving battle down the straight, the pair coming well clear of the chasing pack with Frankie Dettori on the winner and Ryan Moore on the runner up duelling to the wire.
The duo will almost certainly never meet, but if the champion Southern Hemisphere mare Winx could take on the northern hemisphere's champion mare Enable it would be a clash for the ages.
The seven-year-old Australian mare has won four Cox Plates and notched up 29 wins in a row.
The four-year-old Enable is just one of a handful of horses to have ever won two Prix de l'Arc de Triomphes and has now prevailed in 10 of her 11 starts, the last nine in succession.
Her victory at the Breeders' Cup meeting saw her make history: she is the first Arc winner to go to the US in the same year and win at the fixture. Many great horses - Dancing Brave, Golden Horn and Dylan Thomas among them - have tried and failed.
Arguments will of course continue across the racing world as to who is the greatest and which is beating better horses and winning tougher races.
Such discussions are immaterial. Both are brilliant racemares, both are champions, and both are superb at the distances at which they excel - Winx between 1600 metres and 2000 metres, Enable at 2400 metres.
Both are a credit to their connections and continue a recent trend in global racing for the top fillies and mares to have an edge on the top colts and geldings.
Most Viewed in Sport
Please explain
Our weekly podcast giving you insight into the stories that drive the nation.
Listen now