Andrew Balding announced the death of Dewhurst Stakes (G1) winner and classic hope Gewan after the colt sustained a fatal injury during a racecourse gallop at Kempton April 9.
The 3-year-old son of Night of Thunder was the 6-1 third-favorite for next month's Two Thousand Guineas (G1) at Newmarket after winning three of his four starts as a juvenile and being crowned European champion juvenile for 2025.
Balding said: "It's with extreme sadness we report that Gewan, champion 2-year-old of 2025, has suffered a fatal injury while having a racecourse gallop at Kempton this morning. The vets were on site and attended to the horse immediately, but sadly, he could not be saved.
"Our thoughts are with Mr. Zhang and his family, who owned Gewan, James Doyle, who was riding the horse and is luckily uninjured, and Marie Perrault, who has looked after Gewan since he arrived at Kingsclere and rides him every day."
After making an impressive winning debut at Newbury in July, Gewan took a huge step forward when winning the Acomb Stakes (G3) at York. He was then a beaten favorite when fourth of five in the Champagne Stakes (G2), but secured his biggest success next time when defeating Gstaad by 3/4 of a length in the Dewhurst at Newmarket.
He had been on course for a prep run in next week's Greenham Stakes (G3) at Newbury before next month's Classic bid, and Balding was full of praise for the colt.
Balding added, "We will never forget his brilliance when taking the Dewhurst in such impressive style, and we were so looking forward to seeing what he could achieve during his 3-year-old career.
"Racing is full of high days and low days, and unfortunately, this is very much one of the latter."
