Bow Echo wins thrilling Sussex renewal, is likely for Breeders' Cup

Bow Echo, the first horse since Frankel in 2011 to win the 2000 Guineas, the St. James’s Palace, and the Sussex in succession, will do something the great Frankel never did: cross the Atlantic and race in America.

The Sussex, a barn burner of a race Wednesday at Goodwood, is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, and Bow Echo’s trainer, George Boughey, said afterward that the Breeders’ Cup Mile, with sharp turns and a typically fast pace, should suit his star 3-year-old. All being well, Bow Echo will accept his automatic fees-paid berth into the Mile and show up at Keeneland in October.

The colt definitely showed up in the Sussex, his first try against older rivals, who gave the sophomore eight pounds and could not keep up with him. In the end, the Sussex came down to the 3-year-olds, and Bow Echo ran the score to 3-nil over Gstaad after running him down by a half-length.

Bow Echo now has raced six times and never lost, capping his 3 for 3 juvenile season in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and running out the three Group 1s, each with its unique challenges, in May, June, and July this year.

The 2000 Guineas is a straight, undulating mile, the Newmarket course penultimately angling down into The Dip before a testing uphill finish. There, Bow Echo won by 2 3/4 lengths over Gstaad, but in the St. James’s Palace, run around one right-handed turn at relatively flat Ascot, Gstaad came within a nose of victory. Things did not go as planned for Bow Echo in the St. James’s Palace, and the Sussex presented its own obstacles, mainly in the form of Aidan O’Brien-trained horses.

:: Get free past performances, analysis, and picks for international racing.

O’Brien sent out three in the Sussex – Dorset to set the pace, Puerto Rico to pester Bow Echo, and Gstaad to try and win, and O’Brien’s three riders executed the blueprint. Dorset went hard, outrunning headstrong Opera Ballo, the best of the older horses, to take command after a furlong. Bow Echo, with 20-year-old Billy Loughnane aboard, broke a beat slow and raced ninth of 12 as the horses came off a 2 1/2-furlong swath of straightaway and into sweeping right-handed bend, heading downhill along another straight stretch, Loughnane hot on Gstaad’s heels.

There came Puerto Rico and Christophe Soumillon, an unwelcome new neighbor moving close onto Bow Echo’s left flank, with Ryan Moore on Gstaad in a position to keep Bow Echo hemmed in as long as he wanted. Off the final bend and into the homestretch, Moore steered Gstaad left, putting Bow Echo to his inside and behind a wall of horses with a little less than a quarter-mile remaining.

Loughnane could see he’d never shake free of traffic if he maintained his course and thus let Moore and Gstaad clear him, with Bow Echo athletically jinking left just off Gstaad’s heels.
Had Puerto Rico been capable of better holding his position, Bow Echo might still be looking for room, but Loughnane instead worked his mount into the clear.

Bow Echo bumped with Zavateri and Gstaad bore down on Opera Ballo, who had taken a lead of a couple lengths 250 yards from home. But just as Gstaad pushed alongside Opera Ballo, Bow Echo, his legs fully beneath him after all the messy racing, found a gear that no other horse in the race possessed, home by a half-length going away.

Gstaad had 1 3/4 lengths on Opera Ballo, with Ten Bob Tony, the shocking winner of the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, a respectable fourth. Bow Echo paid $3.80 on the American tote.

George Boughey, who is just 34, trains homebred Bow Echo for the executors of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid. Bow Echo is by Night of Thunder out of Aristocratic Lady, by Invincible Spirit. He’s not as brilliant as Frankel – no one is putting the colt on that level yet – but has so far proven unbeatable, showing great courage his last two starts.

Boughey said Bow Echo will next run in France, either in the Prix Jacques Le Marois on Aug. 16 or the Prix du Moulin on Sept. 6. During his perfect 14-start career in 2010-11, Frankel never ran outside England. Bow Echo will cross the English Channel this summer and the Atlantic Ocean in the fall.

Molecomb Stakes

It was not a Bow Echo-level performance, but Pershaada scored a smart win in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes one race before the Sussex.

A 2-year-old filly getting three pounds from the juvenile males, Pershaada won by two lengths over Adonius while running the best, most professional race of her five so far.

Precocious Pershaada raced twice this spring on all-weather tracks before capturing a Goodwood maiden race over a straight five furlongs, the same distance as the Molecomb, and coming back with a good fourth of 27 in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot. The filly had shown a lot of speed in her previous starts but assented to racing off the pace and behind rivals under Sean Levey on Wednesday. Levey found a gap with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining and Pershaada zipped through, finishing off with a good turn of foot.

Richard Hannon Jr. trains Pershaada ($7.50), a daughter of Persian Force and Mild Illusion, by Requinto.

The Molecomb is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, and Pershaada, unlike most European 2-year-olds, already has experience racing around a turn. In the shorter term, Hannon suggested Pershaada could take on older rivals – with a massive weight break – in the Group 1 Nunthorpe over five furlongs next month at York.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.