Bow Echo has been rated the best winner of the 2000 Guineas since Frankel (2011) by experts Timeform.
Despite the racing analysts at Timeform suggesting it looked a below-par renewal of the first colt’s Classic of the season before the race, where Gstaad was the lowest top-rated horse to head a field this century, it took just under 96 seconds for things to look a lot brighter as Bow Echo put up a top-class effort to win the 2000 Guineas.
The son of Night Of Thunder recorded a rating of 131, pulling two and three-quarter lengths clear of Gstaad whose rating of 123 is up to the sort of level that is typically required to win the first classic of the year.
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Only five horses have earned a higher rating in winning the 2000 Guineas since 1970 (the European pattern was introduced the following year), and all of those are legends of the turf, Brigadier Gerard 141 (1971), El Gran Senor 136 (1984), Nijinsky 135 (1970), Frankel 135 (2011) and Dancing Brave 134 (1986).
Three of those horses on that list went on to contest the Derby, but Bow Echo isn’t even entered for the Epsom classic, and it’s easy to see why on pedigree, his sire 2014 Guineas winner Night of Thunder while his dam and dam sire were both sprinters.
Bow Echo looks set to stay at 1m for the immediate future, reportedly set to have a little break and head to Royal Ascot next, and it’s hard to see what might lower his colours in the St James’s Palace Stakes, before tackling his elders in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.
Timeform’s highest-rated 2000 Guineas winners since 1970:
141 – Brigadier Gerard (1971)
136 – El Gran Senor (1984)
135 – Nijinsky (1970)
135 – Frankel (2011)
134 – Dancing Brave (1986)
131 – Bow Echo (2026)
131 – Bolkonski (1975)
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Geoffrey H. Latayan