Royal Lodge Stakes: Bow Echo to be supplemented

The unbeaten son of Night Of Thunder was put through his paces at the Rowley Mile on Saturday morning in order to get acquainted with track before tackling the mile Group Two next Saturday which connections intend to supplement him for at a cost of £10,000.

Working under Billy Loughnane over seven furlongs alongside a lead horse partnered by Grace McEntee, the Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum-owned colt quickened away smartly through the closing stages of the gallop and finished comfortably on top of the exercise.

Boughey said: “He is a horse that has never taken a huge amount of work and that was probably only the fifth piece of work in his career. He is just a very natural horse that seems to handle all sorts of ground and all sorts of tracks. He just had a little bit of a think coming into the dip, but he quickened away nicely.

"That is as good as a two-year-old that we have had work with that lead horse and he is in tip top condition ahead of next Saturday.”

After making a splash on his debut at Newbury, Bow Echo followed that victory up when getting the better of the well-regarded Publish upped to Listed level in the Betting.Betfair Ascendant Stakes at Haydock Park earlier this month.

Although this will be another step up the ladder Boughey expects the nature of the race, staged over the same course and distance he hopes Bow Echo will appear in next year’s Betfred 2000 Guineas, to suit him much better.

He added: “His work had always been good (before his debut), in the little evidence we had, as he had never come off the bridle and he was going past maiden winners. He was in my five-to-follow at the start of the year and he has always had a great temperament for the job and he looks to be going the right way.

"The big thing Billy said that as an inexperienced horse he hasn’t really had anything to take him deep into a race. At Haydock Park he was wandering about in front. He hit the front possibly too soon, but he had to commit, and he had to really knuckle down.

“The stronger tempo of the race here, as usually at Newmarket they go a good gallop, will help him. He is a horse that is still learning and we are working back from the 2000 Guineas next year. This will just give him some match practice on the track and we are looking forward to seeing how he can get on.”

And while next year’s Betfred 2000 Guineas is still some way off Boughey admits that Bow Echo’s next assignment could be his last on track before bidding for Classic glory in the spring.

He added: “He was very immature six weeks ago and we had to make a decision whether we wanted to try him again. There was the Dewhurst, but that is back in trip, and this looks like the perfect thing to sign him off for the year if he can run well.

“I don’t think he needs to be doing too much into what is hopefully a busy summer campaign next year. He is a very clean winded animal and he doesn’t take much work. Hopefully, if he is good enough, we could get him there without having a trial.”

More from Sporting Life

• Free bets
• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.