THE Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup was one of the twin features on day two of the Guineas Festival weekend at the Curragh, and what an achievement it was to have half-brothers racing against each other at racing’s highest echelon.

The year-older Almaqam (Lope De Vega) gave his Ballylinch sire a 27th Group 1 winner, while the four-year-old Saddadd (Pinatubo) was third, and strikes me as a likely future Group 1 winner. It is a feature of the runners out of the Cape Cross (Green Desert) stakes winner Talmada that they improve with age, just as the Godolphin-bred Almaqam has done.

That said, Talmada’s half-brother Saamidd (Street Cry) was an eased-up, two and a half-length winner of the seven-furlong Group 3 Champagne Stakes at two for Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum.

The Sheikh has enjoyed many Group 1 wins in his distinctive colours over the years, and the first to carrying them with distinction was Mtoto.

Sheikh Ahmed won an Irish Oaks with Possessive Dancer and the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh with Nezwaah, while Tobougg, Ameerat, Nahrain, Addeybb and the 2024 1000 Guineas winner Elmalka have been among his other winners at racing’s top table. Now Almaqam joins the list.

Always held in high esteem, and especially by trainer Ed Walker, Almaqam has been in the first three on all but two of his 12 starts, and this was his fourth win. Last year he beat Ombudsman in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes, and on his final outing that season was third behind Calandagan and Ombudsman in the Group 1 Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot.

Gerald Leigh

The female side of this family is one developed to the highest standard by Gerald Leigh at Eydon Hall Stud. He sold the stakes-placed Zibilene (Rainbow Quest) carrying her first foal for 1,500,000gns to Barouche Stud in 2001.

She was by some way the best price at the December Sale that year, and this was after her half-sister sold at the same venue for 1,700,000gns. They were then the highest and third-highest prices ever paid for a broodmare in Europe.

Zibilene’s value was enhanced in the year of her sale by a Group 1 Fillies’ Mile win for her half-sister Gossamer (Sadler’s Wells), who would go on the following year to add the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Gossamer was born nine years after her full-brother Barathea (Sadler’s Wells), winner of the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and he went on to win the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile and become a successful Rathbarry Stud sire. Zibilene is the third dam of Almaqam.

Sunnyhill’s Masar gets a Dream result

WHILE Ed Walker was enjoying a Group 1 win at the Curragh on Sunday, he had time to reflect on the fact that his two winners the day before included a listed victory at Haydock Park. Fortunately, this was in one of the races that was able to go ahead there.

That stakes win was achieved by the improving Dreamasar (Masar), and this lightly-raced four-year-old was winning for the third time in five starts, and is unbeaten on both her outings this year. It is really worth highlighting that Dreamasar’s half-sister Dreamloper (Lope De Vega), also trained by Walker, gained both of her Group 1 wins, in the Prix d’Ispahan and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, at five before selling for $2.7 million to Katsumi Yoshida.

Another late developer is their half-sister, Santorini Star (Golden Horn), and that five-year-old put up the best performance of her career last Thursday week when beaten a short neck in the Group 1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier. At the end of last year she was second in the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu to Consent, having beaten that filly in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes. The decision to race Santorini Star on at five would be worthy of a Group 1 success.

They are among five winners, all bred by Olivia Hoare, out of Livia’s Dream (Teofilo). She cost Hoare 45,000gns as a yearling, had a listed win among her four victories, and her progeny have regularly been stars in the sale ring. The latest to be so was her filly foal by New Bay (Dubawi) last year at Goffs. She was sold on Olivia Hoare’s behalf by Mount Coote Stud, and topped the November Foal Sale when selling to Philipp Stauffenberg for €650,000.

Big hopes

A beaming Lillingston spoke in the aftermath of the sale. “We came here with big hopes because this was a really special filly. There aren’t many with this sort of pedigree available in the marketplace, and certainly not at foal sales, but the filly has shown beautifully. Needless to say, there was a lot of interest in her and you’ve got to take your hat off, all your hats off, to Philipp Stauffenberg. He is the bravest of the brave because he’s stretched right out to buy her. It is always reassuring to buy something with a lot of residual value”.

Should Santorini Star gain a Group 1 win, and Dreamasar go on to better things, Stauffenberg will not only be shown as brave, but to also have been astute when the New Bay is reoffered.

Michael Hickey will also be pleased with a third blacktype winner for Masar (New Approach), the 2018 Group 1 Derby winner. He may have a Group 1 winner in waiting with Masar’s daughter Venetian Lace, runner-up to Precise in last year’s Fillies’ Mile and third to True Love in the 1000 Guineas this year.

Pim’s Eagle flies high with Birdman

FREE Eagle, a son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells), is well into his third season at Alastair Pim’s Anngrove Stud, and last season doubled the numbers he covered from 2024. He is hopefully being well supported as he sired a number of smart winners, and his talented son Khalifa Sat was runner-up in the Group 1 Derby, with the likes of Kameko, Mogul, Highland Chief and Pyledriver in arrears.

The Moyglare Stud-bred and raced Free Eagle retired to stand at the Irish National Stud at a fee of €20,000. You won’t have to pay anything like that for him today, but his eight blacktype winners include the smart David Pipe-trained Windbeneathmywings, a listed bumper winner.

Meanwhile, Free Eagle’s five-year-old gelded son Birdman, winner for Jessica Harrington of the Listed Yeats Stakes at Navan and placed in the Group 2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, is flying the sire’s flag in Australia. Seen as a stayer in Europe, his form dipped when he was sent down under, but trainer Chris Waller has him at his best, and he won the Group 1 Doomben Cup at the weekend.

Pattern wins

Birdman has won four times in Australia this year, all pattern races. Victory in the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes at Randwick was first, and he progressed to land a pair of Group 2 contests, the Blarney Stakes at Flemington and the Peter Young Stakes at Caulfield. His wins in Australia have ranged from eight to 10 furlongs. Birdman originally raced for his owner/breeder Cristina Patino, and hails from a dam line she has propagated.

This is the family of Snow Fairy (Intikhab), a champion at three and four who was a global superstar. She won the Oaks in Ireland and England, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Queen Elizabeth Cup twice in Japan and the Hong Kong Cup, those six Group 1 wins earning connections just short of £4 million. Snow Fairy won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet too, but was later disqualified.