Bow Echo Takes 'Notable Step Forward' as Boughey Outlines Royal Ascot Plans

“His work has undoubtedly got stronger” is undoubtedly a statement that rival trainers would not wish to hear from George Boughey when it comes to Bow Echo.

The Irish and French champion trainers Aidan O'Brien and Francis Graffard won't be running scared as such, but despite the fact they will be bringing their own Guineas winners Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) and Rayif (Sea The Moon) to Royal Ascot, Boughey's scintillating son of Night Of Thunder is plainly the one to beat in the clash of the Classic colts.

The unbeaten Bow Echo has indeed already got the better of Gstaad when the pair met at Newmarket in the 2,000 Guineas and drew eight lengths clear of the third home, Distant Storm (Night Of Thunder). The Guineas winner will now bid to follow the likes of Rock Of Gibraltar, Frankel, Gleneagles and Poetic Flare by backing up in the St James's Palace Stakes, for which nine horses stood their ground on Wednesday.

Casting his mind back to the first weekend of May, Boughey says, “I think to put on the show that he did was a little bit of a surprise to us, but he took the race well and within a couple of days he needed to be back out and in full work.

“I have the confirmation that he is the horse that we hoped he would be. There's always a little bit of an unknown through the spring to see if he's a horse that's going to flourish, and luckily he has, and I think he's taken a notable step forward.”

He adds, “But it's a time of the year where the generation is all changing, isn't it? There's often a horse that comes through – there's the Heron winner who was probably not physically ready for the Guineas at that time.”

Indeed, let's not forget Talk Of New York (Wootton Bassett), who won impressively at the Craven meeting before earning his stakes stripes at Sandown at the end of May. 

“I think he was impressive,” Boughey says of the Godolphin colt. “There'd been a big rap on the horse through the spring. I just hope they go a good gallop – it would suit us.”

From the straight mile at Newmarket, Bow Echo will switch to the round course at Ascot, but this holds no fear for his trainer, who says, “He's a horse that I want to ride with a bit of restraint on a straight track. If you do jump and you land in a prominent position, you're often a victim of circumstances. That's why I was so happy where Billy was in the run [at Newmarket].

“Undoubtedly, you don't want to be too far back at Ascot on the round mile, they can get away from you on the front. But he jumped and travelled at Haydock, ran round a bend, he sat third, possibly hit the front too soon but they didn't have anything to take him far enough. So he's got quite a few of the attributes you need for that track.”

Any physical ability is always helped by the presence of a good mind, and this is another attribute which Boughey feels is in Bow Echo's favour. Certainly he is the model of good behaviour as he and apprentice Jack Callan proceed along Newmarket's Farm Canter, the colt having visibly strengthened since his first appearance at a press morning on the Monday before his Classic victory.

Bow Echo with Henry Morshead | Megan Rose Photography

“He was fast asleep five minutes before you arrived,” he tells the press pack on his lawn. “He's always given me incredible confidence about his mental constitution for a test like that. 

“I think he's a horse who will travel. He has improved, and it was interesting working him on the July Course the other day. It was good to soft ground, possibly the softer side of that, and I was a bit apprehensive the night before. It rained and we switched his work morning from Tuesday to Friday – he just worked on the all-weather on the Tuesday – and he was electric.

“Henry [Morshead], my assistant, and I were looking back at the videos of him through the autumn into the spring, and he's now a stronger animal, and that enables him to handle slightly slower conditions.”

He adds, ominously once more, “He's an unbeaten Guineas winner who, for me, looks like his best days are ahead of him. It's a long game with this horse, I hope. He's a horse who's going to keep improving and I just thought, having him right for Ascot, I had more confidence by not going to Ireland. I would have fancied him on the day, how he was working here on the Friday morning [before the Irish 2,000 Guineas]. But I thought that Ascot was not more important, but for the longevity of the horse, it was more important that he had the break.”

With that long game in mind, there is also a future stallion career to consider for the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid homebred. Boughey says that he believes Bow Echo can eventually race beyond a mile, though that is unlikely to happen this season.

“When he was sent to me, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid said he was the horse that was going to change my career,” he says. “That was probably a bit bold from him as an unraced yearling, but he has that pedigree and he is by the stallion who is most upwardly mobile in a time where some of the top stallions are ageing. And to have a 126-rated son of Night Of Thunder who's unbeaten is a huge honour.”

He continues, “I think as a horse who's shown a blistering turn of foot, and the fact that he does relax and he puts himself in the right mindframe, will allow him to get further but I don't think he needs to at the moment.”

One horse who will be stepping up to ten furlongs for his Royal Ascot engagement is Protection Act, who heads to Thursday's G3 Hampton Court Stakes. The son of Starspangledbanner has run twice and won twice, notably beating Irish 2,000 Guineas third Pacific Avenue (Dubawi) on his second start at Goodwood for owner Teme Valley. Following that run, he was bought by Wathnan Racing. 

“His work is progressive,” Boughey says. “No one, myself included, will know quite what level he's at until he's stepping up to ten on the big occasion, but he's got a brilliant mind for the game.

“I slightly wish that he'd come a little bit sooner in the spring, but he had a trace clip when he won at Goodwood. He wasn't there. He's improved, certainly, for the run.”

Another unbeaten three-year-old heading to Ascot in the same colours as Bow Echo is Westport (Blue Point), who will line up for the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes. 

The trainer says, “He was still very behind himself in the early part of the spring and got very warm on his second start, but that was because he still had a winter coat, but he's starting to blossom.”

Boughey will also bid to extend a real purple patch for Shapoor Mistry when he sends the owner's Rosy Affair (Havana Grey) to the G1 King Charles III Stakes on Tuesday following her last-start win in the Listed Cecil Frail Stakes at Haydock.

“She drops back to five, and I've been wanting to do that for a while,” he says. “She's shown loads of pace at home. The quickest we've ever had a horse go over five furlongs was her yesterday, so it gives me confidence to run five furlongs with her.

“She used to miss the kick but she's matured. She's a five-year-old now, and she's just starting to really learn how to sprint, I think is the terminology for it.”

Mistry is likely also to be represented in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes by another Havana Grey filly, Havana Lightning, who won on her second start at Yarmouth. 

Libertango (No Nay Never), a 400,000gns Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up purchase by Vefa Ibrahim Araci, and Byzantine (St Mark's Basilica), an Arqana breeze-up graduate who races for Teme Valley and Ed Babington, are also among the Ascot-bound juveniles.

“Libertango worked nicely just about an hour ago,” Boughey said on Wednesday morning. “She goes to the Albany, and she was a good winner against the boys at Leicester.

“Byzantine was a good winner on debut in possibly fortunate circumstances, but he was entitled to win, his work had been good. He could go to the Chesham.”

Boughey also plans to run Doreen Tabor's Survie (Churchill) on the opening day of the meeting in the Listed Wolferton Stakes, and “live chance” Hopewell Rock (New Bay), another recent Wathnan purchase, in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes. 

“Survie goes to the Wolferton – a Group 2 winner in a Listed race. It's not typically a race for the fillies, but I just felt that it looked like a nice spot for her,” he says. “She stepped terribly from the gate in the Dahlia and was on the back foot, hated the track, and she missed the kick at Kempton the time before. So we've been working pretty intensely here with the Withefords on her stalls work, and she's so much better now.”