Champion racehorse Gewan has tragically died following a “fatal accident” on Thursday morning, leaving his trainer utterly heartbroken. The three-year-old son of Night of Thunder, who claimed victory in the Dewhurst Stakes last season and had been widely tipped as a leading contender for next month’s 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. He was being prepared for next weekend’s Greenham Stakes at Newbury when the devastating incident took place during a racecourse gallop at Kempton.

Vets rushed to attend to Gewan immediately, but they were unable to save the horse, with trainer Andrew Balding releasing a statement confirming the sudden tragedy. “It is with extreme sadness that we report that Gewan, Champion two year old of 2025, has suffered a fatal accident while having a racecourse gallop at Kempton this morning,” he said.

“The vets were on site and attended to the horse immediately but sadly he could not be saved.

“Our thoughts are with the owners, James Doyle who was riding the horse and is luckily uninjured and Marie Perrault who has looked after the horse since he arrived at Kingsclere and rode him every day.”

“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 three-year-old career.

“Racing is full of high days and low days and unfortunately, this is very much one of the latter.”

Gewan had made an impressive debut at Newbury in July with victory, before going on to take the Group 3 Acomb Stakes at York.

He won a second time around at Newmarket, defeating Gstaad by three-quarters of a length in the Group 1 Dewhurst.

Gewan was in preparation for a run in next week’s Greenham Stakes at Newbury before the Classic next month.