Boughey sends ominous message to Bow Echo’s Royal Ascot rivals

George Boughey has issued a warning to Bow Echo’s rivals that his 2000 Guineas hero is only getting better ahead of what is shaping up to be a mouth-watering St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The son of Night Of Thunder saw off Gstaad for big-race glory at Newmarket and intrigue for the rematch has been building since Aidan O’Brien’s Breeders’ Cup winner notched his own Classic at the Curragh.

However, after a scintillating piece of work recently, and having been wowed by the physical development of his star colt, Boughey is full of confidence ahead of one of the feature events of the opening day of Royal meeting.

Boughey told Racing TV’s Luck On Sunday: “He’s a horse that my one worry with him was the ground because he was such a weak horse in the spring that when he did do one piece of work on slow ground, it wasn’t underwhelming, but he just didn’t have that turn of foot.

“The physical development this horse has shown in the last three to four weeks has been extraordinary and he did a 59-second five furlongs on good to soft ground, possibly slower and that’s the best he has ever gone.

“He’s a very fast horse and he might need a new lead horse quite soon as he’s only able to get Bow Echo six furlongs now in his work and I think when people see Bow Echo in the pre-parade ring at Ascot untacked they are going to see a different horse physically to what we saw at Newmarket.

“He’s still physically maturing and to the late owner’s credit, he said this was the time of year he would be upwardly mobile and I hope I’m right.

“Billy (Loughnane) has ridden him in every piece of work he has ever done and knows him so well. There’s been a couple of times he’s not quite been A1 and actually that’s when he gallops on the Cambridgeshire Road in his routine work because he’s so bored of it.

“Training the athlete he needs to keep working but when he gets on grass, which we haven’t been able to do much recently, that’s when he comes alive.”

Bow Echo will be the obvious star of Boughey’s Royal Ascot team, but the Newmarket handler is hopeful some of his team-mates can also make their mark at the summer’s marquee event.

“We’ll have between 12 to 15 runners there and nothing like Bow Echo, but we do have a couple of unbeaten three-year-olds,” continued Boughey.

“Protection Act goes to the Hampton Court and Westport is three from three and goes to the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes, so we have some lovely horses.

“Westport is one who I think is taking his form to a different level and he works with Rosy Affair, who will run in the King Charles III on day one.

“Survie will go to the Wolferton and a few for the handicaps that are hopefully on the right curve.

“Moonfall whose sister (Soprano) won the fillies equivalent, the Sandringham, had a terrible draw at Chester and we probably felt if he was drawn were (the winner) McMurray was then he would have been in the shake up.

“He’s rated 90 and is almost guaranteed to get in (the Britannia Stakes) on that looking at the last 20 runnings of that. Hopefully Billy can have a few quiet days on the food and we can sneak him in at the bottom.”