After Frankie Dettori won his fourth King George on Doyen in 2004, the Queen, no less, reminded him on the winner’s rostrum that Lester Piggott had won seven. Now Dettori has seven wins in the Ascot showpiece too, thanks to a brilliant and brutally efficient success by Enable here on Saturday, which set a record of her own as the first horse to win the King George three times. There was much talk of tactics before the three runners set off but no amount of scheming would have been able to contain Enable, the 4-9 favourite despite ­having been beaten on her past two starts. Sovereign, as expected, set a strong pace, with Japan settled just behind Enable by Ryan Moore, but by the time Enable moved smoothly alongside Sovereign two furlong out, Japan was already struggling. At this point, Dettori took a long look around and liked what he saw. “I didn’t hear a lot,” he said, “so I thought he was either sneaking behind me or I’d got a bit of daylight, and the second thing I thought was: he’s in trouble. All she had to do was find another gear and she did.” It was enough to take Enable five and a half lengths clear of Sovereign at the line and give horse and rider their 11th Group One success together, six more than Dettori has registered on any other horse in his long career. Their association has been, for the most part, an unbroken run of success, with just one crushing disappointment when Waldgeist denied them an unprecedented third Arc at Longchamp last October. There were fears that Enable’s enthusiasm might be on the wane when she was beaten for the second race running in the Eclipse this month, but those doubts now seem very premature. “She’s been in Newmarket for four years going up those gallops and she knows what’s going on,” Dettori said. “We tried a variety of things to get the fire back, and that’s why John Gosden is a great trainer, he does things outside the box, and we got her back. “She’s not getting better, but her enthusiasm throughout the race today was plain to see and she’s thriving with racing. The dream is the third Arc. We came so close last year and with this kind of performance, you think, we’re still in with a shot.” No rider misses the racecourse crowds as keenly as Dettori and he knows that a few thousand fans, at least, should be at Longchamp in October for what seems likely to be Enable’s final start. First, though, she may head to York next month for either the Yorkshire Oaks or the International Stakes, and a possible first meeting with Love, this year’s brilliant Oaks winner. Love was the clear favourite for the Arc before the King George but Enable has now joined her at the top of the ­betting as 3-1 joint-favourite with Paddy Power. “I love her so much,” Dettori said. “I’ve become friends with her, she’s got tremendous presence and she knows she’s good. I know I’ll only have her for another couple of months and I’m trying to enjoy it, like everyone else.”