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Ante-post market leader Bow Echo will take on fourteen rivals after declarations were revealed for the opening Classic of the season at Newmarket on Saturday.
George Boughey’s colt had been popular in the betting market over the winter and became a firm favourite after other leading contenders were ruled out. He will bid to defend an unbeaten record, which culminated in a fine performance in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes over the 2000 Guineas course and distance.
Carrying the colours of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, Bow Echo will also look to provide young jockey Billy Loughnane with a first Classic success.
The son of Night Of Thunder will face a stern Newmarket challenge however, with Charlie Appleby set to launch a two-pronged attack on the contest as he bids to continue his excellent run of form in the race having claimed three of the last four renewals.
A €1.9 million purchase from the Arqana Breeze Up Sale, Distant Storm will make his first outing of 2026 having rounded off his juvenile season by finishing third behind the ill-fated Gewan in the Dewhurst Stakes. He is the mount of William Buick, with James Doyle booked to take the ride on the unbeaten King’s Trail, who will look to follow in the footsteps of stablemate Notable Speech, who won the same two Kempton races before taking the prize in 2024.
Godolphin will have a third string to their bow thanks to Roger Varian’s high-class Avicenna. He is set to take on his Craven Stakes conqueror Oxagon, the mount of Oisin Murphy.
Aidan O’Brien hasn’t won the race since Magna Grecia in 2019 and will solely rely on his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf hero Gstaad, who was supplemented for the race at a cost of £30,000 after he was mistakenly taken out of the contest due to a ‘computer glitch’ earlier in the month. O’Brien failed to declare the French 2000 Guineas-bound Puerto Rico, Causeway and Flushing Meadows.
Karl Burke did not declare Hankelow but his Greenham Stakes winner Alparslan adds further spice.