THE Andrew Balding-trained Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Gewan has been ranked as Europe’s Champion Juvenile for 2025.

Gewan, a son of Night Of Thunder, followed up a debut win at Newbury in July with an impressive defeat of Italy (112) in the Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes at York.

Disappointing at Doncaster in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, he came back to his best at Newmarket in the Zhang Yuesheng colours, to end the season in style and confirm himself a leading classic prospect for 2026.

Perhaps surprisingly, he can still be backed at 12/1 for the 2000 Guineas with the twice-raced Albert Einstein and Bow Echo ahead of him in most ante-post listings.

Balding gave a brief update that he was “very happy with the horse at the moment”, he had wintered well and will hopefully be ready to go at Newmarket in May.

Irish stables are responsible for 18 of the top 40 juveniles and following Gewan are the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair of Gstaad and Puerto Rico, each with a mark of 119, while stablemates Hawk Mountain (116) and Action (115) also take high rank.

O’Brien is also responsible for the highest-rated fillies in the Classification, with Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Precise and Royal Ascot and Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner True Love being awarded a mark of 115.

Donnacha O’Brien trains two fillies on the 114 mark, Breeders’ Cup winner Balantina and Cheveley Park runner-up Havana Anna.

Adrian Murray is again represented in the top ranks with Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes winner Power Blue.

Unexpected

There were also a few unexpected trainers in the top 40 and the second-highest rated British representative, with a mark of 118, is the Eve Johnson Houghton-trained Zavateri.

A winner of four of his five starts, the Without Parole colt won the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh prior to finishing fourth behind Gewan in the Dewhurst.

Another son of Night Of Thunder, the George Boughey-trained Bow Echo (115) is to the fore in the ante-post classic markets and the unbeaten Group 2 Tattersalls Online Royal Lodge Stakes winner is the third of the British runners in the ratings.

Declan Carroll also makes the top 20 with the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Lifeplan (113).

Britain’s highest-rated filly is Venetian Sun. Trained by Karl Burke, she took Group 1 honours in the Prix Morny at Deauville to go alongside her victories in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket’s July Festival.

Charlie Appleby and Godolphin have four in the top 40 headed by Distant Storm, another by Night Of Thunder, who finished behind Gewan at York and Newmarket, and the Group 1 Tattersalls Middle Park Stakes winner Wise Approach (Mehmas), both on 115.

French stables have been a bit absent from the Classification in recent years. Christopher Head has two representatives - the three-time winning colt Nighttime (113) and the four-time winning filly Green Spirit (110).

Both of them finished second to the O’Brien runners Puerto Rico and Diamond Necklace on Arc day. Francis Henri Graffrard is not lacking new material for next year with two colts in the top 40, Samangan and Rayfi, both owned by Aga Khan Studs.

There is also a rare German-trained runner included with Andreas Wohler’s unbeaten Gostam (Saxon Warrior), a five-length Group 3 winner at Cologne, rated on 112 alongside Beautify, Constitution River and Humidity.

Pierre Bonnard

Kingsclere

The BHA Handicapping Team Leader Graeme Smith said: “Gewan became the first outright European champion two-year-old to emerge from Kingsclere in the 48-year history of the Classification, bettering the achievement of Andrew Balding’s previous Dewhurst - and subsequent 2000 Guineas winner - Chaldean (119) in 2022.

“He follows Forest Flower (125 in 1986) and Mrs Penny (joint champion in 1979 at 121), who were both crowned champion two-year-old fillies for Andrew’s late father, Ian.

IHRB Handicapper Mark Bird added on the Ballydoyle representatives: “Aidan O’Brien trained Europe’s champion juvenile filly for the third year in a row and for a record ninth time in total as Precise and True Love shared top billing on a rating of 115.

“True Love’s victory in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket was matched by Precise’s success in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile.

“Aidan trained a record seven individual two-year-old Group/Grade 1 winners in 2025. He also matched his previous best total of nine two-year-old Group/Grade 1 race wins in a calendar year.

“This dominance of the two-year-old landscape is reflected in his being responsible for six of the top 10 horses in the Classification.

“Two of the four Ballydoyle Group 1-winning colts ended the year tied as champion two-year-olds in Ireland on a rating of 119.

“Gstaad landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar after running up three times in elite company, while Puerto Rico went from strength to strength to win both the Group 1 Qatar Prix Jean Luc Lagardere and the Group 1 Criterium International in France by season’s end.”