George Boughey has provided an upbeat bulletin on Betfred 2000 Guineas winner Bow Echo ahead of his rematch with Gstaad in the St James's Palace Stakes this month.
The pair met in the Newmarket Classic on May 2 this spring, with Boughey's colt storming home to beat Aidan O'Brien's representative by two and three-quarter lengths, the runner-up subsequently winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh.
Boughey opted to skip the Irish version with his stable star, who has a perfect 4-4 record, having won all three starts as a juvenile too, and he can hardly wait for the opening day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday June 16.
Bow Echo is the general 11/10 favourite for the St James's Palace and his trainer said on Racing TV's Luck on Sunday programme: "I think when people see Bow Echo, probably in the pre-parade ring untacked, they'll see a different horse physically to what they saw at Newmarket.
"He was - and I still think he is - maturing. To the late-owner's (Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum) credit, this is the time of year that he said he (Bow Echo) would be upwardly-mobile and I'm hopeful he's right.
"Billy (Loughnane) has ridden him in every piece of work he's ever done and he knows him so well. A couple of times he's not quite been A1 and actually that's been his routine work because he's so bored of it. Training an athlete, he needs to keep working, but when he gets on grass which we haven't done much recently, he does come alive.
"My one worry with him (ahead of Newmarket) was the ground as he was such a weak horse in the early spring that when he did do one piece of work on slow ground... it wasn't underwhelming, he just didn't have that turn of foot and I think that the physical development this horse has shown in the last three or four weeks is extraordinary.
"He did a 59-second five-furlong on good to soft ground, possibly slightly slower, and that is the best he's ever gone. He's a very fast horse. This is a horse that I've never worked with before, let alone been able to train. He might need a new lead horse probably quite soon!"
Boughey is set to have a very strong team for the Royal meeting and outlined some running plans for a handful of his other contenders aside from Bow Echo.
He said: "I think we'll have between 12 and 15 runners there. Obviously nothing like Bow Echo really but we do have a couple of unbeaten three-year-olds who are going there - Protection Act goes to the Hampton Court, Westport who is three from three goes for the Palace Of Holyroodhouse.
"We've some lovely horses; Survie in the Wolferton, and a few in the handicaps who I hope are on the right sort of curve. Westport, who I've mentioned, is a horse who has started to take his work to a different level. He's working with Rosy Affair who goes for the King Charles II Stakes on day one as well.
"Moonfall's sister won the fillies' equivalent - the Sandringham... he had a terrible draw at Chester and Ryan (Moore) probably felt that if he was drawn where Mcmurray who won the race for us was, he thinks he might have been in the shake-up. He's off 90 and he's almost guaranteed to get in (Britannia) off that so hopefully Billy can have a quiet day on the food the day before and we can sneak him in at the bottom (of the weights)."
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