Arguably the biggest name in European racing this year, the three-year-old Night Of Thunder colt Bow Echo, has been retired. His trainer George Boughey has just announced the news after a minor setback in training.
Bow Echo therefore ends his career with six wins from as many starts, the last three of them at Group 1 level: the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and, most recently, the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.
All three came over a mile, a trip over which he is the highest-rated horse in the world.
His earnings finish on £1,650,000, the equivalent of DKK 14.45 million, or around DKK 2.4 million per start.
Bow Echo had been set to line up in the Prix Jacques Le Marois (Gr.1) in France on Sunday. Whether a dip in form, illness or injury lies behind owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s decision to call time on his career is not known. But it will certainly have weighed in the balance that Bow Echo becomes the first colt since Frankel in 2012 to retire unbeaten.
I am sure that trainer George Boughey and jockey Billy Loughnane would gladly have carried on. Boughey says it has been the honour of a lifetime to train him, and a fairytale for everyone involved in his care.
For jockey Billy Loughnane, who has partnered him in all six starts, he is comfortably the best horse he has ridden.
As a son of Europe’s leading stallion of the moment, Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), a golden future at stud undoubtedly awaits.
Dalham Hall in Newmarket would be a good guess, given that his own grandsire Dubawi stands there. Owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid already has three stallions at the same address, among them Rosallion (Blue Point).
