Gewan deserves to be considered leading Classic contender, say Timeform

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. Gewan 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.

"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."

Timeform's highest-rated two-year-olds:

118 Gewan

116 Gstaad

114 Puerto Rico

114 Zavateri

113p Precise (filly)

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