Unbeaten Bow Echo holds off Gstaad in Royal Ascot thriller as Moore gets ban

<ul><li><p>Guineas winner fights hard for feature race success</p></li><li><p>Moore and Soumillon given bans by stewards </p></li></ul><p>Five races and two Group Ones into his career, Bow Echo remains unbeaten – just. He had only a short head to spare over Gstaad at the line in the St James’s Palace Stakes, having briefly looked likely to canter to victory passing the two-pole, but it was enough to secure a first Royal Ascot Group One for both George Boughey, Bow Echo’s trainer, and his 20-year-old rider, Billy Loughnane, whose best season yet just keeps getting better.</p><p>On the face of it, perhaps, this was a slightly scrambled success, given Bow Echo’s winning margin of nearly three lengths over Gstaad in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket last month, and the apparent ease with which it was achieved. But Ascot is a very different track, with a sterner climb to the finish, and Bow Echo is hardly the first colt to find that it has different demands.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/16/bow-echo-bravely-holds-off-gstaad-to-stay-unbeaten-in-thriller-at-royal-ascot">Continue reading...</a>