Bow Echo puts perfect record on the line in Sussex Stakes

Fifteen times this century, a 3-year-old has beaten older rivals and won the Sussex Stakes, the major one-mile contest at Goodwood Racecourse in England. Bow Echo is a very, very good 3-year-old, and the betting market is forecasting another sophomore Sussex success Wednesday.

British bookmakers priced Bow Echo at just over even money on Monday afternoon. Sunday night into Monday morning, Gstaad, another 3-year-old, beaten a nose by Bow Echo last month in the St. James’s Palace at Royal Ascot, supplanted Opera Ballo as second choice, available at about 7-2.

Why such a large odds gap when so little separated Bow Echo and Gstaad in the age-restricted St. James’s Palace? Because Bow Echo had a rough trip at Ascot, Gstaad had a perfect one, and Bow Echo has yet to lose after five starts.

Bow Echo seeks to become the first horse since Frankel in 2011 to capture the Sussex after landing the 2000 Guineas and the St. James’s Palace. The last two 3-year-olds to start in all three races, Poetic Flare in 2021 and Galileo Gold in 2016, finished second in the Sussex.

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Both lost to fellow 3-year-olds, and Gstaad certainly rates as Bow Echo’s leading rival from the same class. Gstaad easily won the Irish 2000 Guineas on May 23, and Bow Echo is the only horse to defeat him this season, though the margin between the two colts was 2 3/4 lengths in the Guineas. That race is run down a straight course, while the St. James’s Palace has a standard left-handed bend compared to irregular right-handed turns and plenty of downhill sections in the Goodwood mile.

At Ascot, Gstaad drifted left just after the start and gave Bow Echo a couple hearty bumps, causing Bow Echo to lose position and jockey Ryan Moore to get suspended three days for careless riding. Bow Echo wound up three to four wide without cover through the second part of the turn, with jockey Billy Loughnane, by his own admission, moving earlier than he’d planned. Moore hugged the rail the entire trip and found the gaps when he needed them, and at the wire he was coming back on a flagging Bow Echo.

The 3-year-olds get eight pounds from their older male rivals, among them the 2025 Sussex winner, Qirat, who might seem like a big price at 50-1 but was 150-1 when he sprang the greatest surprise in Sussex history a year ago.

While 2024 Sussex winner Notable Speech did not turn up for this race after a subpar run in the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, his Charlie Appleby-trained stablemate Opera Ballo stands a strong chance in his own right. Four-year-old Opera Ballo set an early Queen Anne pace far faster than par and held sturdily until the very late stages, finishing third, and he’s a horse better suited to a turning track than straight-course racing.

The Queen Anne fell apart late owing to the strong tempo, the pace collapse producing a last-to-first 50-1 winner, Ten Bob Tony. Not many anticipate a repeat performance, with Ten Bob Tony trading at 16-1 on Monday.

The Sussex is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, as is another Wednesday contest at Goodwood, the Molecomb, a five-furlong straight course dash for 2-year-olds about which nobody seems to know much of anything. Eleven were entered, five priced between 4-1 and 13-2. Give an edge to the filly Pershada, a solid course-and-distance maiden winner and a competitive fourth of 27 last out in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot.

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