NEWMARKET, UK — Rain has been in short supply in Newmarket for weeks but if the weather can be seen as a metaphor for George Boughey's mood then the spotless blue sky of Monday morning was a pretty good one. And why shouldn't this 34-year-old be upbeat? After all, his training career, which got underway in 2019, has been on nothing but an upward trajectory over the past seven years. This bright morning, his Craven House Stables contains the favourite for Saturday's Betfred 2,000 Guineas, and it is a yard which has seen Boughey move up in the world, almost literally, since he started training at the other end of Newmarket's Hamilton Road. Now he is higher on Hamilton Hill, and from his tiered vantage point can almost see over the treetops to the main stage of the Rowley Mile, mere furlongs away as the crow flies. The creature charged with doing the flying come Saturday, however, is Bow Echo, the racy-looking colt whose sire Night Of Thunder beat Kingman to win the 2,000 Guineas 12 years ago. Brought out to meet a gaggle of press by assistant trainer Henry Morshead, Bow Echo is a model pupil as he poses for the cameras: demure in mood and stripped fit for his long-awaited return to the racecourse. The weekend can't come soon enough for Boughey.“We had him ready pretty early and realised that he doesn't actually need a huge amount of work. He just does one canter on a daily basis and breezes once a week,” he says. “So we've been kind of freshening him up. And I think the fact that he's been so straightforward has afforded us that luxury. I think when Cachet won the Guineas, she had a totally faultless spring. I almost hate to say it, but so has he.”Ah yes, Cachet. Boughey has been here before. Well, almost. Four years ago, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's Aclaim filly gave him his first taste of Classic success in the 1,000 Guineas. At odds of 16/1, Cachet may have been a little more under the radar than Bow Echo, but not as far as her trainer was concerned. “We fancied Cachet to win the Guineas, but I don't think as many of you guys did,” Boughey says, and plainly feels similar in regard to his unbeaten Royal Lodge Stakes winner Bow Echo.“We're pretty happy with where we are,” he says. “We were never going to trial the horse, and he's in as good a condition as we could have him. I think he's a horse who's very good fresh, and he's fresh and well.“Look, it's the 2000 Guineas. It's a high-quality field with some very good horses in there. We wake up every morning and hope that the horse is in good condition, because we know how things can happen so quickly.”The last winner of the Royal Lodge to return to win the 2,000 Guineas was Frankel 15 years ago. Though Bow Echo has already earned his stripes over a mile as a two-year-old, Boughey is convinced that that will be his optimum distance this year. His dam Aristocratic Lady was a 97-rated daughter of Invincible Spirit who won three races over six furlongs. She died last year with Bow Echo being the middle of her three offspring. Aristocratic Lady was herself a daughter of Dubai Queen, a Kingmambo half-sister to Dubawi. The latter of course appears in Bow Echo's top line as grandsire, meaning that he is inbred 3×3 to Dubawi's dam, the Oaks d'Italia winner Zomaradah (Deploy). The fingerprints of his late owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum are all over Bow Echo's pedigree. Another major winner for this family mere months after the sheikh's death would be fitting indeed.“I'd be surprised if we saw him over 10 furlongs. He's showing a huge amount of pace, and we'll look to harness that,” says Boughey of his Classic contender, who was given a racecourse gallop during the Craven meeting rather than being asked to run in the Craven Stakes. “He's a very well-balanced horse, and it was just nice to see him quicken through the Dip again. We were able to control the narrative really. He worked seven furlongs.If the Craven was seven furlongs, it'd be a slightly different matter, but I thought running a mile first up to then running in a Guineas was probably not the right thing for him.”Boughey uses all the modern tools that are at his disposal in analysing his horses' work and fitness rates and has been impressed with the consistency he has seen in Bow Echo, who is a medium-sized colt with a relatively light frame. Bow Echo with assistant trainer Henry Morshead | Emma Berry “His work, his stride length, his heart rate, his recovery has all been very similar, even from when he started back galloping,” he says.“For the job that he's bred to do, I think he is the perfect-sized horse. To win a Guineas, I think you need athleticism, you need balance, you need speed, you need a lot of things. The fact that he stayed [the mile] – he has that as well. I wouldn't change how he is – it has enabled him to be incredibly sound. We've never had to do anything to him.“He worked on slightly slower ground in the early spring and I actually changed his work because it rained overnight. His work was still good, but he's a good-moving animal who wants top of the ground.”In the saddle for all of his work has been Billy Loughnane, whose profile has risen very much in tandem with that of Boughey. Over the last two seasons, Loughnane's CV has become increasingly peppered with Group victories, and he made his breakthrough into Group 1 territory when winning the Grosser Preis von Berlin aboard the Godolphin legend Rebel's Romance last August. A Classic success is the obvious next goal for this burgeoning talent. “He is the full package,” Boughey says of Loughnane. “We work very well together. As well as being a brilliant jockey, he's got a great mind, and I consider him to be a friend. He talks to me about anything, and that, I think, gives him the freedom to ride with complete confidence. I'm pretty sure he was nought from 31 before he rode a winner for me, and I just said, 'You're on the team.' We walked the track the other night, and it was more than anything to give him the confidence that he can ride the horse as he finds. I won't tie him down to any instructions. He's unbeaten on the horse. He's ridden him in all of his work this year. No one knows him better.”Before Cachet, Boughey himself came closest to a Classic win when Mystery Angel (Kodi Bear) was second in the Oaks in just his second full season with a licence. He can be credited with 'making' the 12-time Group One winner Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock), whose first win at the highest level came for Boughey in the Pretty Polly Stakes before she was sold for 2,700,000gns to Yulong Investments and exported to Australia. Believing (Mehmas) was his latest top-notcher in last year's Al Quoz Sprint. “We've built a big team of horses and a big team of staff,” he says. “It's where we want to be, when we can. But to have a colt who's favourite for the Guineas is very special. We've done it with some fillies so far, and he's been the best colt we've had.“We've trained 100 winners for the last four years, and we've been lucky to fall upon some horses to run at the top table. We moved into this yard, and to have a Group 1 winner last year was key in the first year.”Though content with where he has Bow Echo ahead of Saturday, Boughey is clearly not implying that his next Classic victory is in the bag and acknowledges the competitiveness of what is being billed as an open race.“I think he was very impressive when winning,” he says of Godolphin's second-favourite Distant Storm, another son of Night Of Thunder who won the G3 Tattersalls Stakes before running third in the Dewhurst 10 days later.“Puerto Rico improved dramatically in the autumn for what looked like slower ground, but it's a very open race in behind with horses who are improving. We fear everyone. It's a Group 1. It's the Guineas, but I wouldn't swap him.” The post ‘I Wouldn’t Swap Him’: Guineas Favourite Bow Echo Has Boughey Bouncing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.