Boughey salutes Bow Echo as ‘the complete racehorse’

George Boughey hailed Bow Echo as “the complete racehorse” the morning after announcing the retirement of his star colt.

The 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace and Sussex Stakes hero was being readied for another Group One assignment in this weekend’s Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, before a minor injury was discovered that ultimately led to connections calling time on his unbeaten career.

“It was obviously upsetting news yesterday for a lot of people – he’s captured the imagination,” Boughey told Nick Luck’s daily podcast on Wednesday morning.

“I think fundamentally we just wanted to touch base to show that he is absolutely fine really in reality. He had a minor setback into what we hoped was his last piece of work going into Deauville.

“The process these high-level horses go through means he is trotted up before and after every piece of work and he showed a very, very low grade lameness, which meant we X-rayed him just to make sure that he was OK and there was a slight change there.

“I do everything in the best interests of the horse to stop an injury that could be catastrophic happening. I’m looking at the horse now in his box on the camera and he’s eaten up, he’s basically sound and in very good spirits. It’s all very upsetting, but he’s been a star.”

Boughey revealed had the injury happened earlier in the summer, the son of Night Of Thunder could well have made it back to the track.

He added: “Timing is everything with horses, it’s a short window these horses race and if he was to have the time off that he needs to get him back to the track he very easily could race again. Even if had happened around Royal Ascot time, there would be a distinct possibility he’d be able to run at the end of the year, so it is just timing.

“The call was made by Godolphin and us that it’s too high risk to race him on as a four-year-old and we just basically ran out of time. I think it was very much the right decision for everyone and I’m just very much looking forward to preparing the horse to be a stallion at the end of the season.”

While the Newmarket handler has enjoyed Group One and Classic success before Bow Echo came along, he admitted the three-year-old – who emulated Frankel with his big-race treble – had “massively” changed his life.

“I’ve been very lucky in a short space of time to have trained a few Group One horses and to have had that feeling and that high and that sense of satisfaction for myself, but also for all our team to find those horses – it’s euphoric,” he said.

“After you’ve had those great horses you’re always searching for the next one. I didn’t think a horse like Bow Echo would come along quite so soon – he has been the horse of a lifetime and to me the complete racehorse.

“Billy (Loughnane, jockey) and I were actually going through videos of him last night when sat texting each other and from so early on he showed enormous class.”