THE card on day five of the Galway Festival was sponsored by Guinness and, in front of a bumper crowd, the featured €110,000 Guinness Handicap over a mile and a half was won by the 3/1 favourite Thread Of Gold. One of five market leaders to oblige on the evening, the Ghaiyyath gelding followed up his win in Leopardstown’s Nasrullah Handicap when quickening well for Billy Lee to beat Immutable by a length and three-quarters.

Remarkably, the three-year-old, owned by Team Valor International LLC and Gary Barber, was the first of his age to win this race since the Johnny Murtagh-ridden Taraza in 2001.