George Boughey is thrilled with the improvement of Bow Echo after a tough race in the St James’s Palace. The Night of Thunder colt maintained his unbeaten record to five, beating Gstaad a short-head.
The classic winner easily dispatched of his lead horse at a gallop morning on Saturday, as he bids to take on his elders for the first time. Speaking to Sporting Life, George Boughey said: “He is in terrific shape. Huge thanks go to the July Course for letting us gallop here as in these dry times. We can’t get on the grass in Newmarket where we want to. So he needed to come and do that, and he did exactly what we hoped. He is spot on.
“He knows the place very well, and he is a very well balanced horse. I’m not really sure his lead horse could quite go a good enough gallop for him. But he is a different calibre of horse to what we have got.
“Billy knows him very well and asked him the question he needed to be asked. He is a very fit animal that is taking his work very well.”
“He has got an extraordinary constitution” – George Boughey
Bow Echo kept his unbeaten streak intact by a slim margin, with the St James’s Palace panning out unfavourably from the off. It was a rough affair, but Boughey believe it has improved him further.
“Within a week of the race at Ascot he was absolutely mad fresh. He has got an extraordinary constitution,” said Boughey. When asked if the race had an effect on him, Boughey said: “In the immediate aftermath I thought it had. But within a week or so he was back to where we wanted him.
“He had a real battle, but he has come out of it a man. I think sometimes those horses can go one way or another from it. He certainly looks like he has come out of it in good shape.”
Having gone to Ascot fresh after a racecourse gallop, the Bow Echo team hope they can repeat the successful path. “Mentally he really switches on for it. If you came and saw him on a Monday morning you would see he is a very relaxed horse that doesn’t do a stroke. He actually needs to come here.
“We did it before the 2000 Guineas and we did it before Ascot. We know the programme he can now train on into the race. He is an incredibly intelligent animal. Hopefully he comes out of it as well as we went in and that we now can just tick away until the race.”