Bow Echo stays unbeaten with easy 2000 Guineas victory
Bow Echo easily won the 2000 Guineas on Saturday at Newmarket Racecourse, remaining unbeaten after four starts while looking like an unusual talent.
His 20-year-old jockey Billy Loughnane settled Bow Echo near the back of the 14-runner Guineas, perhaps two horses behind him halfway through the straight-course mile. Loughnane began working forward with three furlongs remaining, getting over to the stands side rail, Bow Echo gathering force coming to The Dip, the low portion of the Rowley Mile that can throw an accelerating horse off balance just before encountering an uphill finish. None of that happened to Bow Echo, who pushed forward with pure intent, getting on terms with Gstaad with about a furlong remaining, overpowering a good colt on the way to a 2 3/4-length victory.
The top two proved far, far better than the other dozen, the Godolphin colt Distant Storm eight lengths behind Gstaad in third. Probably this won’t prove an especially deep Guineas, but the wide margins between the top finishers suggest the winner, at least, could be special. Gstaad, after all, finished second in the Group 1 Dewhurst and won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Bow Echo kept a relatively low profile while going 3 for 3 as a 2-year-old. His trainer, 34-year-old George Boughey, said the colt’s late owner, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, insisted last year that Bow Echo rather than go for the Dewhurst in his 2-year-old finale race in the Group 2 Royal Lodge, easing him into the winter before his sophomore campaign. Whether that proved a key element in Bow Echo’s development or not, Boughey had the colt primed for his first start in seven months.
Gstaad broke sharply and briefly led before Ryan Moore eased him back as the field split into three groups, the middle section merging with the horses on the far side after a couple furlongs. Gstaad raced toward the middle of the stands’ side pack, coming alive as Bow Echo marched forward and into Moore’s line of sight. Gstaad hung with Bow Echo for a furlong but could not sustain Bow Echo’s push up the rising ground to the finish.
Bow Echo paid $11 on the American tote. The homebred colt is by Night of Thunder out of Aristocratic Lady, by Invincible Spirit. While Bow Echo looks like a horse who can run farther, Boughey ruled out a start in the Derby, saying Bow Echo would be kept to one-mile races for now. That puts the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in play, and if Bow Echo continues to improve it’s difficult to see his winning streak ending there.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.