Champions Series stars dominate nominations for Cartier Awards

Enable is in contention to be named Cartier Horse of the Year for a second time. Picture: Racingfotos.com

Horses who have shone in this year’s QIPCO British Champions Series dominate the nominations for the 29th Cartier Awards.

Five of the six stars in line to be crowned Horse Of The Year -on Tuesday night  Blue Point, Enable, Magical, Star Catcher and Stradivarius – all won Champions Series races this year. The odd one out is Waldgeist, although he was placed in both the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes.

Enable was crowned Cartier Horse Of The Year and Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly in 2017 and Cartier Older Horse in 2018.

She added a further three Group 1 wins to her CV this year under regular partner Frankie Dettori. The John Gosden-trained five-year-old mare, homebred by owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, recorded victories in the Coral-Eclipse, King George and Darley Yorkshire Oaks.

Her career earnings now stand at over £10 million.

Enable’s old rival Magical, trained by Aidan O’Brien for a Coolmore syndicate, was also a three-time Group 1 scorer this year, while Enable’s three-year-old stablemate Star Catcher won three times at the highest level too.

Both Magical and Star Catcher won on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot last month.

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, who won the King’s Stand Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.

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

European horseracing’s top awards are delivered through a tried and tested combination of points earned by horses in Pattern races (30%), combined at the end of season with the opinions of a panel of racing journalists/handicappers (35%) and votes from readers of Racing Post and The Daily Telegraph plus ITV Racing viewers (35%).

Harry Herbert, Cartier’s Racing Consultant, commented: “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.”

Nominations for the 29th Cartier Racing Awards – in alphabetical order

Cartier Horse Of The Year

Blue Point

Enable

Magical

Star Catcher

Stradivarius

Waldgeist

Cartier Older Horse

Blue Point

Crystal Ocean

Enable

Magical

Stradivarius

Waldgeist

Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt

Circus Maximus

Japan

Logician

Too Darn Hot

Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly

Anapurna

Hermosa

Iridessa

Star Catcher

Cartier Sprinter

Advertise

Battaash

Blue Point

So Perfect

Cartier Stayer

Dee Ex Bee

Kew Gardens

Logician

Stradivarius