Strangers still congratulate me on Litigant’s Ebor – Tuite
TRAINER Joe Tuite has paid tribute to his horse of a lifetime Litigant after announcing the retirement of the 2015 Ebor winner.
The injury-prone nine-yearold, who raced just 13 times in total, won York’s signature race on his very first start for Tuite.
It was also a high-profile success for the then teenage jockey Oisin Murphy, now established as one of the premier Flat riders.
The previously unheralded Litigant, who also won Doncaster’s season-ending November Handicap in 2015, had not raced since finishing unplaced in France last November.
“Things were going great. He tweaked himself 10 days ago and we decided it was time to draw stumps,” Tuite told
“He was a very good horse to me, that’s for sure, and we will find him a good home. The Ebor was the greatest day in my racing career and will probably never be topped.
“It was a great race to win, but I will always remember how the crowd at York really appreciated a small stable from Lambourn coming up there and turing over the big guns. When I come to York now, strangers still congratulate me on winning the Ebor.”
Tuite was also fulsome in his praise for Murphy’s dedication – and how he told the jockey, on the eve of the race, that Litigant would be very different to the horse that he worked on the gallops. So it proved.
“He gave him a wonderful ride. Oisin will go all the way, he will be champion jockey,” added Tuite.
“A great horseman, his work ethic is second to none. He still rides out for me twice a week – and it doesn’t matter if it’s the good, bad or indifferent. He’s one of life’s great men and will go all the way to the top.” JUMP jockey Andrew Thornton is hoping to be back in the saddle in September after his latest operation.
The weighing-room veteran injured a knee dismounting after riding his landmark 1,000th winner at Wincanton on Boxing Day and needed his anterior cruciate ligament to be reconstructed.
While rehabilitation has not gone entirely to plan, Thornton is optimistic he is on the home straight after dismissing retirement talk.
“I had the operation at 2.30pm on Tuesday and came back round at 4pm,” said the North Yorkshire rider who won the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Cool Dawn.
“They’ve taken the screw out and also tidied up some scar tissue around the front of the knee cap.
“I don’t expect to be back before mid-September at the earliest still but hopefully it’s getting there.
“That’s my 13th operation