Nobody knows how good Litigant can be, says resurgent Tuite

rags-to-riches trainer Joe Tuite has given his horse of a lifetime Litigant a clean bill of health as the fairytale winner of the 
Betfred Ebor prepares to take on Europe’s best stayers in the Prix du Cadran at Longchamp on Sunday.
Litigant ridden by Oisin Murphy wins the Betfred Ebor.Litigant ridden by Oisin Murphy wins the Betfred Ebor.
Litigant ridden by Oisin Murphy wins the Betfred Ebor.

Two years ago, Tuite was close to quitting training because of financial pressures. Now he has set his sights on winning this prestigious Group One contest race, one of the support races to the much anticipated Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in which the filly Treve will attempt to win Europe’s blue riband race for a third successive year.

And the trainer heads to France with a fragile seven-year-old horse who was only running for the eighth time, and after a 491-day lay-off, when galloping away with the Ebor – Europe’s richest Flat handicap – under a nerveless Oisin Murphy.

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Sunday’s cross-Channel excursion will be Litigant’s first run in Group One company, and his first run over two and a half miles, but the ever optimistic Tuite is not concerned on either front.

“I really couldn’t be happier with him, I wish it was tomorrow,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want the ground to dry out too much but I imagine it will be good to soft ground, and that should be beautiful.

“Everyone said it was a great training performance in the Ebor but I think he’s in even better shape now, the Ebor just blew away the cobwebs. He absolutely thrived for the run, 10 days after it you could see he had physically improved.

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“Nobody knows how good this horse could be and I think he can only be better for having a race. We’re very hopeful, I know it’s a Group One but he couldn’t be better. I don’t think the trip will be a problem, either.”

Jump jockey Sean Quinlan’s burgeoning association with the Sue and Harvey Smith stable at High Eldwick continued when Perseid prevailed at Sedgefield yesterday – it was his second success on the horse. The rider has also teamed up with agent Bruce Jeffrey in the hope of getting more rides in the North.

Meanwhile Gavin Sheehan, who won last season’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle so memorably on Cole Harden, put a lean summer spell behind him by winning at Southwell aboard Tennessee Bird for Market Weighton trainer Mike Sowersby.

First Sitting looks a horse ready to make his mark at a higher level after running away with the Racing UK Handicap at Ayr for Nawton trainer David O’Meara and jockey Danny Tudhope. Formerly trained by Dermot Weld for Khalid Abdullah, the four-year-old looks a shrewd purchase by owners Hambleton Racing.

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Seamour has the Betfred November Handicap at Doncaster as his end-of-season target. Brian Ellison’s charge had been one of the ante-post market leaders for the Cesarewitch at Newmarket but the Malton trainer felt the four-year-old failed to see out the two-and-a-quarter-mile trip in the Doncaster Cup last time out.

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