It takes a special horse win the 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace and Sussex Stakes in the same season. And an extraordinary one to achieve that feat and still be unbeaten.

So extraordinary, in fact, that there have been just three in the past century: Palestine (1950), Brigadier Gerard (1971) and Frankel (2011).

Bow Echo will join that exalted trio if he wins the £1.5 million Goodwood showpiece a week today, and the RaceiQ data points to him having excellent prospects of pulling it off.

George Boughey’s stable star won each of his three races as a juvenile and remains without a blemish on his record. Almost a year on from making his debut, he still does not know what it is to be beaten.

His Group One triumphs this campaign have been gained in contrasting style at the main expense of the same rival, Gstaad, who will again be waiting for him.

Bow Echo thumped him by the best part of three lengths in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in May, but the rematch at Ascot the following month was a different story as he scrambled home by a short head.

In another stride, his bubble would have been burst and there would be no talk of him emulating previous titans.

Yet the slenderest of winning margins painted a misleading picture.

Bow Echo was hampered soon after the start, got a little lit up and challenged wider than ideal. He also became something of a sitting duck after breezing to the front off a frenetic early gallop.

Meanwhile, Gstaad got a dream run up at the rail after allegations of team tactics and Christophe Soumillon, riding one of his stablemates, getting a ban for riding a race that benefitted him.

The first half mile at Ascot was chaotic, with the data revealing all the runners clocked their top speeds and fastest furlongs during that period. That is highly unusual for a mile race at the highest level, where things usually build to a crescendo.

By Andy Stephens (Racing TV)

Photo: Healy Racing