Full-brother to Grade 1 winner Highland Chief among Kempton newcomers

A full-brother to Gleneagles' first winner and subsequent 2022 Grade 1 winner Highland Chief is set to be among the well-bred newcomers at Kempton on Wednesday.

The Fitri Hay homebred, who is called Clan Chieftain, is the sixth foal out of the Montjeu mare Pink Symphony, a Group 3 winner during her own racing days and herself a close relation of multiple Group/Grade 3 winner and French 1,000 Guineas third Fantasia.

Fantasia, the dam of Group 3 Classic Trial winner Berlin Tango from three winners, and Pink Symphony are out of the winning Darshaan mare Blue Symphony, a daughter of the talented Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Blue Duster.

Pink Symphony has produced four winners from five offspring to have made the track, notably Highland Chief, who provided his sire with his first winner at Newbury in April 2019.

The colt was multiply black type-placed over the next year for Paul and Oliver Cole, including when third to champion juvenile Pinatubo in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot and second to Group 1 winners Mogul and Pinatubo in the Gordon and Great Voltigeur Stakes. He also added the Golden Gates Handicap at Ascot to his CV in 2020.

Switching to Graham Motion in April after just one run when fifth in the Coronation Cup behind Pyledriver in 2021, the colt landed the Grade 1 Man o'War Stakes at Belmont Park in May, defeating Breeders' Cup hero Yibir, who was third, in the process. He also won the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland in October.

Gleneagles: sire of two Group or Grade 1 winners so farCredit: Patrick McCann

Highland Chief is one of two top-flight winners for Coolmore's bred-in-the-purple champion two-year-old and miler, the other being 2021 Prix de Royallieu heroine Loving Dreams.

Gleneagles, who will stand the 2023 season for a fee of €17,500, is responsible for 39 stakes performers, including 14 individual Group winners to date.

Among them are this term's impressive Richmond Stakes winner Royal Scotsman, another to sport Hay's colours, who was narrowly second to Chaldean in the Dewhurst, Kilboy Estate Stakes winner Insinuendo, also third in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes in October, and this term's Valiant Stakes winner Jumbly, last seen selling to MV Magnier and Joseph O'Brien for 1,250,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

Clan Chieftain is set to face 13 rivals in the British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes (4.30), among them Tajawal, a Frankel colt out of the Group 3-placed Street Cry mare Feedyah, and Saint George, Qatar Racing's son of Roaring Lion and out of the stakes-placed Galileo mare Lady Dragon.

Qatar Racing and Andrew Balding also combine in the Unibet/British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes (5.30) with Gentle.

A daughter of No Nay Never, she was bred by Gestut Ammerland and is from one of their signature families, being out of the Group-placed Light The Stars, a Sea The Stars sister to Lope De Vega, plus Group winners Bal De La Rose and Lady Frankel.

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