Juvenile Watch: Bow Echo looks worthy Guineas favourite

I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions this season that I felt the hierarchy within the two-year old ranks was hard to determine. After last weekend I feel that muddy puddle is starting to clear.

I saw Bow Echo as a standout candidate for the Royal Lodge and was surprised that such confidence was not more universal with punters; his SP of 85/40 was bigger than I anticipated.

He received a ride of great composure from Billy Loughnane, who settled him nicely towards the rear of the field. He probably would have liked to delay his challenge for another half-furlong but had to make his move entering the dip as eventual third, Action threatened to move alongside and take his racing room.

His turn of foot was taking and to my eye he was only offering his jockey the bare minimum when getting to the front. To that end the official length winning margin, doesn’t accurately portray his dominance over this field.

Trainer George Boughey suggested he’ll now be put away for the winter before heading directly back to this course for the Betfred 2000 Guineas without a prep run.

He’s proven his liking for the track and deserves his place at the head of what is still a very open betting market.

Having already tipped Morris Dancer at a big price, I’m not inclined to have another bet, though Bow Echo is in my opinion the most likely winner at this stage. The betting market is further complicated by the presence of the lesser-spotted Albert Einstein, a colt who continues to be talked up by his Aidan O’Brien.

In the Cheveley Park star filly True Love was able to prove that her defeat in the Phoenix Stakes last time was a rare blip.

Positioned prominently under Wayne Lordan, a jockey who continues to execute his role as super-sub with precision and the minimum of fuss, she didn’t show the same explosive turn of foot that she’d demonstrated when winning the Queen Mary and the Railway Stakes, although I did like how strongly she galloped out over this six-furlong trip.

On this evidence, coupled with her pedigree, she’d surely have no trouble staying another furlong, though her immediate future would look to lie in the US for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, a route connections took with last year’s winner of this race Lake Victoria.

If heading stateside that would be her seventh start of a campaign that will have spanned seven months. I wonder whether that hints to a suspicion that connections aren’t expecting her to develop much this winter? 

For this reason I can comfortably decline the 10-1 available for next year’s 1000 Guineas. 

The most impressive display from Newmarket on Saturday came in the Group One Middle Park. Just two strides into the race and the chance of favourite Wise Approach looked all but over. He’d been slow to break from the stalls and then clipped heels with The Publicans Son who hung away to his left. 

This meant he found himself detached through the early stages. Yet, under a cool William Buick he steadily latched onto the field and when switched to his right he was able to show a smart turn of foot to quicken up smartly, getting to the front a shade easily before drifting to his left in the closing stages. 

This wasn’t a deep Group One field, but given the ground he lost at the start, and the ground he had to forfeit with a big switch out to his right it’s hard not to be impressed. 

His pedigree suggests that the mile trip of a Guineas will possibly be in range, with his dam Sagely a winner over ten furlongs. 

However, on the evidence of this performance he looks to possess plenty of speed so surely the Commonwealth Cup a race previously won by his half-brother, Perfect Power, would look like a more sensible target, I’d concede that my speculative ante-post wager on Into The Sky for that Ascot Group One is already looking just that little bit more speculative. 

Redcar’s feature race is always a competitive heat. At the five-day declaration stage, the market is headed by the Clive Cox-trained Song Of The Clyde. 

He is following a strikingly similar path as Cox’s 2023 winner Dragon Leader. Both won the valuable Goffs sales race at York and both then finished runner-up in a similar contest at Doncaster. 

With a standout official rating of 100, it’s easy to see why Song Of The Clyde is fancied to keep the mirrored results going and land this year’s edition. 

However, he disappointed on soft ground on his debut and with the forecast promising plenty of rain I’d suggest it’s far from certain that he’d even line-up. As a result, I’ll be sitting on my hands until the final declarations are made.