Litigant & Murphy in Ebor shocker Litigant won the Betfred Ebor at York on his first run for trainer Joe Tuite in the hands of Oisin Murphy. Not seen for 491 days, the seven-year-old gave Murphy a scare at the stalls before the off but there were no problems in the historic handicap itself. As Aidan O'Brien's Fields Of Athenry moved up to dispute matters with John Reel, the field appeared to go a strong gallop and the former led the runners into the straight. Kicking again three furlongs from home, it momentarily looked like young Donnacha O'Brien might record a famous success, but his run began to falter as Litigant came to the fore. Running on strongly, the 33-1 winner had a length and a half in hand of Wicklow Brave, with Suegioo another neck away in third and Toe The Line fourth. Murphy said: "I take my hat off to Joe Tuite, because I worked this horse a few times and he wouldn't work to 60. "But Joe said keep the faith, with a bit of ease in the ground he's a different horse - I must say he's bolted up today. "They went a good gallop, but he's got enough class. In fairness to George Baker, he told me this is a Group horse, obviously having had so few runs and been off for so long it's hard to see it but he was proved right."
