Gewan Sets Greenham Stakes Target on Path to 2000 Guineas Glory

Europe's champion two-year-old is taking the scenic route to Newmarket, and Andrew Balding has done this before.

Gewan, the Night Of Thunder colt who beat all comers in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October with James Doyle aboard, will return in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury before connections aim him at the Betfred 2000 Guineas in May. It is the same blueprint Balding deployed with Chaldean in 2023, a Greenham-to-Guineas formula that produced a Classic winner, though the 2023 prep itself was not without drama: Frankie Dettori was unseated from the 5-4 favourite leaving the stalls before Chaldean went on to Newmarket glory.

"I'm looking forward to stepping him up to a mile," Balding said. "Obviously we'll get the trial out of the way first. He's a big boy and he'll need his trial and that's what the Greenham is for. The race following that will be his big target."

The plan represents a shift from the position connections held as recently as mid-February. Paul Curran, the bloodstock and racing manager for Ace Stud and Forz Europe, had indicated in February that Gewan was "more than likely going to go straight" to the 2000 Guineas, for which the Racing Post listed him as a general 12-1 shot on February 13. By March 19, Thoroughbred Daily News was reporting him no bigger than 10-1, a market move that reflects growing respect for a colt who won three times as a juvenile, adding the Group 3 Acomb Stakes and a novice at Newbury to his Dewhurst crown.

"It's an exciting time of year," Curran said. "We have some hugely exciting contenders for the season ahead and Gewan is our biggest hope. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do."

Gewan will run in the white and green of Forz Europe Ltd, the European affiliate of Yuesheng Zhang's Yulong Investments, having been officially transferred from Zhang's personal ownership to Forz Europe earlier this month. The administrative change does not alter the stable's ambition.

Balding is also thinking beyond a mile. Gewan is out of a Camelot mare, and that bloodline gives the trainer reason to believe the colt has more distance in him than his juvenile form strictly required. "I think he can possibly get further than a mile," he said. "He's in the French Derby. We'll start at a mile and take it from there." French premiums, for which Gewan is already qualified, add another layer of appeal to a European campaign that could extend well into summer.

The immediate practical question, as Balding himself acknowledged, is sharpness. Whether Gewan is sufficiently tuned to handle seven furlongs first time out at three is the key unknown heading into the Greenham. He is a big horse returning from a winter break, and Balding is not pretending otherwise.

The same Ace Stud-backed ownership group has other threads to watch. Barnavara, a 4.8 million guineas purchase by Calyx, is nearing her debut in Australia, suggesting the operation is running parallel campaigns across hemispheres while Gewan plots his path to Newmarket.

Chaldean showed the Greenham-to-Guineas route works. Gewan now has to prove the form that made him Europe's best two-year-old translates when the fields get tougher and the trips get longer.