Sometimes it takes but a few brief brushstrokes to paint a vivid picture of an individual, leaving not much left to explain. For John Gosden, who has brought British superstars Enable and Roaring Lion to the 35th Breeders’ Cup, that picture was frozen forever in time on the afternoon of July 23, 2011, at Ascot Racecourse, where the faithful had gathered to watch the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Gosden won it with the 3-year-old colt Nathaniel in what turned out to be the most important race of his career. But before Gosden could appreciate the achievement, even before he could join his colt in the winner’s enclosure, he found himself striding onto the wide Ascot course to attend to the stricken Rewilding. Watching on television from afar, there was no mistaking the tall man in the somber gray suit and dark brown fedora among the first to reach Rewilding and his fallen jockey, Frankie Dettori. It was the same John Gosden who had cut his teeth as a public trainer at Santa Anita, Del Mar, and Hollywood Park in the early 1980’s, far from his native East Sussex. The same Gosden who, after developing American champions Royal Heroine and Bates Motel, repatriated himself to England at the call of Sheikh Mohammed. And it was the same John Gosden who, just three years earlier, had returned to the States long enough to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita with Raven’s Pass. Dettori was not seriously hurt, but Rewilding, a star for Godolphin, had fractured his right fore cannon bone, and after falling to his left side he scrambled back to his three good feet – as Thoroughbreds will do – and staggered toward the stands. He was not Gosden’s horse, but that did not matter. He was a horse in trouble who needed a kind hand and a few soothing words at a terrible moment. Gosden pulled a handful of grass and gave Rewilding a distracting chew as the veterinarians converged, then he stepped away as the needle did its merciful work. A few moments later, besieged by media, Gosden explained precisely what had happened to Rewilding in terms so clear and compassionate that they should be carried in every trainer’s wallet, to be produced whenever tragedies arise. He made no excuses, no facile rationalization. He was speaking to those who had made the deal long ago to accept the risk to man and beast in pursuit of an always dangerous, yet deeply fulfilling relationship with the Thoroughbred racehorse. Later in 2011, Gosden showed up at Churchill Downs with two Breeders’ Cup starters, but there was no joy. As far as that goes, since he won the 2009 Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita with Pounced, Gosden has had a series of Breeders’ Cup disappointments that stand in stark contrast to his run of good fortune back home. Since 2012, training from his own Clarehaven Stables in the heart of Newmarket, Gosden has been champion British trainer twice while in heated competition with the likes of Aidan O’Brien and Sir Michael Stoute. In three of the last four years, Clarehaven has been home to Cartier’s European Horse of the Year, including the 3-year-old filly Enable in 2017. During that stretch Gosden also watched his fine filly The Fugue, owned by Andrew Lloyd Weber, lose a pair of Breeders’ Cup races by close margins, and in 2015 Gosden’s Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn could not get the job done over deep ground in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland. Now he is back with Juddmonte’s Enable, a daughter of Nathaniel, who is ridden by Gosden’s old friend Dettori. They will be attempting to shed the jinx of Arc winners in the Breeders’ Cup Turf – as if one really has anything to do with the other – but more importantly they will be showcasing Europe’s most appealing Thoroughbred, a filly who defied injury and illness this year to reclaim her place at the top of the heap. Then again, Roaring Lion is hardly chopped liver. By winning four straight Group 1 events to cap his season, including the Champion Stakes at Ascot on Oct. 20, the son of Kitten’s Joy is favored to be hailed as yet another Gosden Cartier Horse of the Year. Owned by Qatar Racing, Roaring Lion will be running for the first time on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. “Earlier this year, we couldn’t have anticipated being here with either one of them,” Gosden said this week. “But sometimes you have to be ready for a change in plans.” Enable has beaten males four times, including her two Arcs and last year’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth in grand emulation of her sire. She has lost only once in 10 starts – a small stakes in April of 2017 – proof that even her trainer is human. “It was her first race back, there were no alternative races, and she actually got a little boxed in,” Gosden tried to explain. “As it turned out, we won it anyway with a stablemate for the same owner.” Gosden added that the race was a mile and a quarter, and Enable has run and won eight straight since, all at the Turf distance of a mile and a half. It is somehow reassuring that such creatures still exist. “She’s always been a big girl,” Gosden said. “Now she’s just filled out more. Obviously we could have done without the three months off in the middle of this season because of her knee. She put on a lot of weight that we had to get off to get her fit again. Then after her prep race for the Arc in September she had a temperature, and her blood count was all wrong. “She got over that, but we missed a couple of key pieces of work,” Gosden said. “It showed in the last 200 meters of the Arc.” Enable and Dettori struck first for home at Longchamp and held the hurtling 3-year-old filly Sea of Class safe to win by a neck. It was every bit as tough as it looked. “She took a little longer to get over it than I’d hoped,” Gosden noted. “But she’s acting happy, so perhaps the Arc was the prep for the Turf she needed.” Any doubts about Enable handling the turning, left-handed grass course at Churchill Downs compared to the vast swards of Longchamp and Ascot should be calmed by her victory in the Chester Oaks last year. “Chester is seven-eighths around, turns all the way,” Gosden said. “And Epsom, where she won the Oaks, has its idiosyncrasies, where you come down the hill left-handed with the camber running away from you. So I think she has both the ability and the agility to handle Churchill.” As for Roaring Lion, Gosden’s first reaction after the colt’s hard-fought Champion win was a happy retirement. “I think it’s fair comment to call this an afterthought,” Gosden said. “He took his race at Ascot very well, but I don’t think he expected to get on an airplane six days later. He is going to stud at the end of the year, so I’m sure his people thought why not one exotic roll of the dice. “He’s very strong-minded, and has a great constitution,” Gosden noted. “Running on the dirt, though, I’m more concerned about the kickback than anything else. There was no opportunity to really practice on it, putting three or four horses in front of him on a sand track. Battle-worn American horses are used to it, while European horses come here, get hit in the face, and start climbing, losing any rhythm of breathing.” Then again, on the brighter side, Roaring Lion is out of a mare by Street Sense, winner of both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. “Yes, I looked her up, and do you know what she was good at?” Gosden said. “Going 6 1/2 furlongs down the hill at Santa Anita. I was hoping for a bit more dirt than just that 30 yards or so of crossing.”