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.