Timeform reaction to Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket | 'Superbly professional' Gewan impresses

Gewan achieves more than Chaldean...

Gewan became the biggest-priced Dewhurst winner since Beethoven in 2009, but there’s really little comparison between the two. That colt was making his tenth start of the season when a 33/1 winner that day, and he never scaled similar heights subsequently, whereas Gewan was having just his fourth outing, having won two of the previous three, and will enter winter quarters as a leading contender for the 2000 Guineas.

He’d have been a much shorter price today but for his disappointing effort in the Champagne Stakes, with his preceding win over the reopposing pair Italy and Distant Storm in the Acomb Stakes clearly a strong bit of form, and it’s perhaps significant that Gewan was more relaxed in the paddock this time than he had been at Doncaster, contributing to a superbly professional effort in the race itself.

There are obvious similarities between him and Andrew Balding’s other Dewhurst winner Chaldean, who contested the exact same races Gewan has, winning a Newbury minor event before landing the Acomb, the Champagne and the Dewhurst. If anything, Gewan showed slightly better form this afternoon than his predecessor did when scoring by a neck back in 2022 – the provisional indication is that Gewan’s decidedly smart effort is supported by the timefigure - and considering that colt went on to win the Guineas the following spring, connections have much to look forward to over the winter, with no doubt that Gewan will be at least as effective over a mile.

That comment also applies to the runner-up Gstaad, despite his sprint-based pedigree, and the Ballydoyle team can justifiably harbour hopes that he may be able to overturn the three-quarter-length deficit next spring. After all, early keenness probably affected his ability to pick up in the closing stages, and it’s notable that he was a pick of this Group 1 paddock on looks.

Precise no Guineas good thing

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’re 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. 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 ante-post prices between 5/2 and 6/1 about Precise support the form-based assessment that she 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 – she’s a St Marks Basilica half-sister to an Irish Oaks winner, while Precise is by the sprinter Starspangledbanner, albeit out of a Galileo mare - that more obviously lends itself to middle distances. Either way, it’ll be fascinating to see how the Ballydoyle pecking order shakes out in the early stages of next season.

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.