Gewan secures Acomb honours for Andrew Balding

Gewan was a game winner of the Tattersalls Acomb Stakes for Andrew Balding and PJ McDonald at York.

The grey was a 11-2 chance in the seven-furlong Group Three, and ran prominently from the off when racing in the slipstream of the leader May Angel in the early stages.

In the last two furlongs the colt began to progress, and in the final furlong he established a lead that he then fought hard to maintain as Aidan O’Brien’s Italy, the eventual runner-up, sought to gain ground before going down by a length and a half.

Charlie Appleby’s Distant Storm, the 11-10 favourite, pulled hard throughout the race and was eventually third.

Balding said: “He’s a horse we’ve always liked from the moment he came into the yard and he was very well bought by Billy Jackson-Stops for not big money really (€80,000).

“He’s a son of Night Of Thunder who has done everything right since the first day and we liked the way he won at Newbury and we were always keen to come here.

“I think PJ was quite taken by him and his attitude and maybe felt he had a little more left.

“I think he’ll stay a mile no problem next year but we’ll probably stick at seven this year.”

Paddy Power make Gewan an 8-1 shot for the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October and Balding added: “It’s possible he could head to the Dewhurst next.

“There’s a lot of two-year-old races to be run between now and then, anything is possible at the moment. I don’t know if we’ve any better than him but other people probably have, so we’ll see how things play out.”

Italy could also be handed a Group One target in the future, with O’Brien satisfied with his performance.

He said: “He ran very well and he’s a lovely, big horse. Ryan (Moore) said he jumped a little bit slow and the horse that jumped in front of him took him an inch or two back further than he wanted to be.

“Ryan said he had to expose him very early, but he ran a very good race, he’s a lovely horse in the making and he will progress.

“There’s many options for him. We had the choice of running here or in the Futurity Stakes (at the Curragh) and obviously we picked to come here. From the Futurity you can go to the National Stakes, but it depends what happens with the others.”