Precise (left) and Gewan

Gewan produdes best two-year-old performance of season on Timeform ratings

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon October 13, 2025 · 2M ago

Gewan may have sprung a 25/1 surprise in the Dewhurst, becoming the longest-priced winner of the race since Beethoven in 2009, but he produced the best two-year-old performance of the season, according to Timeform.

Gewan earned a Timeform rating of 118 (from 108), which equals the figure subsequent 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean, who was also trained by Andrew Balding, achieved for winning the Dewhurst in 2022.

The colt has followed the same path as Chaldean, contesting the Acomb, Champagne and Dewhurst Stakes after winning the same Newbury novice in July. Like Chaldean, who was the 7/2 favourite when winning the 2000 Guineas, Gewan deserves to be considered a leading classic contender.

Timeform handicapper Simon Baker said: "Gewan showed form well up to standard for the Dewhurst - if below the level achieved by superior recent winners City of Troy, Pinatubo and Too Darn Hot - and the fact the top three in the betting completed the frame in the same order suggests there's substance to the form. The form is underpinned by the timefigure, which was the best by a juvenile this season.

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"Gewan had been looking potentially high-class prior to his Champagne Stakes disappointment and it's perhaps significant that he was notably more relaxed in the preliminaries this time compared to Doncaster.

"He'll stay a mile and, with little reason to think he won't train on, enters winter quarters as a leading 2000 Guineas contender, his path so far almost identical to that followed by his stable's 2023 Guineas winner Chaldean."

Aidan O'Brien and Christophe Soumillon with Precise

Meanwhile Precise has been awarded a Timeform rating of 113p for her Fillies' Mile victory on Friday but, while she was impressive, that’s short of what the best recent winners, Desert Flower (118) and Minding (121), achieved at Newmarket.

Baker said of her: "Aidan O’Brien tightened his stranglehold on the division by winning a third Group 1 for two-year-old fillies inside two weeks, and Precise’s win in the Fillies’ Mile looks a superior effort to those that saw True Love win the Cheveley Park and Diamond Necklace the Marcel Boussac.

"There are only a few pounds in it either way, though, and with big-priced runners completing the placings, it’s hard to rate this as a vintage Fillies’ Mile, allowing that Precise won it with her ears pricked, looking value for at least another length.

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"Even factoring that in, her performance falls a little short of those achieved by other wide-margin Fillies’ Mile winners of recent years, such as the 2024 winner Desert Flower and Precise’s illustrious Ballydoyle predecessor Minding.

"Those two fillies were both short-priced winners of the 1000 Guineas the following spring, but Precise isn’t so far ahead of her contemporaries, with the principal opposition coming from within her own formidable stable. Indeed, the unbeaten Marcel Boussac winner Diamond Necklace might just trump Precise for potential, with three races under her belt to Precise’s five and a pedigree that more obviously lends itself to middle distances."

Four more notable winners at Newmarket

Calendar Girl (100p from 93p)

Calendar Girl needed every yard of the six-and-a-half-furlong trip when landing a valuable sales race at Doncaster last month and she duly proved suited by stepping back up to seven furlongs at Newmarket where she showed improved form to win the Oh So Sharp Stakes.

The winning margin was only a neck, but there was a lot to like about how Calendar Girl went about things, travelling smoothly before finding enough to fend off an unexposed improver in second.

Calendar Girl's performance has been rated a shade below standard for an Oh So Sharp winner in the last decade, and she has about a stone to find with the divisional leader, but she's open to further progress and will be worth her place in a Guineas trial in the spring.

Damysus (118p from 112)

Damysus failed to beat a rival in the Derby but he put that disappointment behind him when winning a listed race at Deauville last month and took another step forward to win the Group 3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket.

He showed a good attitude to get the better of another progressive three-year-old, Gladius, by three-quarters of a length and he retains the Timeform 'small p' to show he's capable of even better form.

The only horses who contested the Derby now rated higher than Damysus are Delacroix (129) and Lambourn (121), while The Lion In Winter is also rated 118.

Damysus enhanced his reputation in the Darley Stakes but didn't get close to matching the level shown by two of the best recent winners of the race, Alflaila (126) and Lead Artist (124).

Timeform Horses To Follow is out now

Pierre Bonnard (106p from 96p)

A steady pace didn't provide Pierre Bonnard with the ideal platform to assert his superiority in the Zetland Stakes and, given the margins involved, the bare performance hasn't been rated as one of the best recent winning efforts in the Group 3.

However, there's no doubt that Pierre Bonnard is an exciting prospect and a serious Derby contender after picking up well to reward strong support.

An eye-catcher on looks, Pierre Bonnard won in the style of one with much more to offer when getting a stronger gallop to chase, while his stout pedigree suggests he'll have no problem staying a mile and a half next season.

Hankelow (106p from 102p)

This doesn't look like a vintage edition of the Autumn Stakes and Hankelow's rating is the lowest for a winner of this Group 3 in the last decade, and some 10 lb below the level Delacroix ran to last season.

Hankelow had the benefit of a good ride, with Clifford Lee dictating a modest tempo, and was able to put his experience to good use. That being said, it still represented an improved performance from Hankelow who has progressed with each start and could have a bit more to offer.