George Boughey has announced that his star three-year-old Bow Echo has suffered a setback and has been retired from racing.

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Boughey said: “It is with great disappointment that we have to announce that Bow Echo has had a setback and will be retired from racing.

“It has been the honour of a lifetime to train a horse like Bow Echo. He has given us some extraordinary days and taken everyone involved on a journey we will never forget. To retire unbeaten, having won the 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Sussex Stakes says everything about what an exceptional racehorse he has been.

“Bow Echo’s remarkable story began with his owner-breeder, the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid and it is a great sadness that he was not here to see what a lifetime of breeding was able to produce. Bow Echo’s unbelievable constitution and extraordinary ability have set him apart.

“We will all miss seeing him at home and on the racecourse, but we are incredibly excited for his next chapter and in time, to see a new generation of his progeny on the racecourse.

“Further details will be announced in due course.”

Billy Loughnane added: “Bow Echo has been the most unbelievable racehorse and has given me days in the saddle that I could only ever have dreamed of. To ride a horse like him at this stage of my career, and to win the 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Sussex Stakes together, is something incredibly special.

“I can’t thank George and the whole team enough. George has trained him to perfection throughout his career and I feel incredibly lucky to have been Bow Echo's jockey in all six of his starts.

“Of course it’s disappointing that we won’t see him on the racecourse again, but he retires unbeaten having done everything that was asked of him. It has been a privilege to ride him and he’ll always mean a huge amount to me.”

Awesome achievements

The disappointing news comes less than two weeks after Bow Echo captured the Sussex Stakes, completing a hat-trick of Group 1 wins on his first start against older horses. The Night Of Thunder colt retires as a three-time Group 1 winner and unbeaten in six starts.

Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s homebred ended his unbeaten juvenile campaign in the Group 1 Royal Lodge Stakes over Newmarket’s Rowley Mile and returned in May to run out an impressive winner of the 2000 Guineas.

His winning margin in the St James’s Palace Stakes was much narrower at a short head over regular rival Gstaad, after a messy start upset Billy Loughnane’s plans. The young rider’s delight has been the cherry on top of each performance and after his Ascot win, he said: “I’m so lucky to be part of a horse like this at the age of 20.”

“He’s so fast, he’s like a motorbike,” was the line from Boughey after his stable star stormed home to win the Sussex Stakes, his talent overcoming all traffic problems he encountered.

“It’s not lost on me what he has achieved this year and it dawned on the last few days I might never be in this position again,” the trainer added. “There are a lot of trainers who have trained a lot better horses than I have who haven’t been in this position. I can’t put into words what this horse means to me and he’s a warrior as well as being a very fast horse.”

At Goodwood, Bow Echo emulated Frankel’s Newmarket/Ascot/Goodwood treble and saw his Timeform rating rise to 133, putting him to the top of the miler division and 5lbs clear of Constitution River (128p) in Timeform’s three-year-old ratings.