Willie Mullins heaped praise on rising star Gary Carroll as Sesenta fended off the challenge of red-hot favourite Changingoftheguard to snatch victory in the totesport Ebor at York.
Young apprentice Carroll brought the petite mare with a challenge inside the final furlong and the 25-1 chance stuck to the task well to deny the 15-8 market leader by a head. Hits Only Vic was three-quarters of a length adrift in third, with Nanton taking a close-up fourth in a photo-finish.
Johnny Murtagh was slowly away from the stalls aboard the Aidan O'Brien-trained favourite, and having taken a brave route around the inside was trapped for racing room as the pace increased down the home straight.
Mullins said: "She's only 15 hands so she's not going novice chasing! We just entered her in the big handicaps hoping for a light weight. We didn't claim at Ascot so we thought we'd try claiming. Gary rode for me last year and I thought he was one of the best kids I have ever seen on a horse.
"She has been running all year round - the only big meeting she has missed is Liverpool. Mick Kinane said she hated the ground at Galway last time so she had to have some decent ground here. We will have to try for some black type now."
Carroll said: "She got shuffled back early on and turning in I was a bit further back than I wanted, but she is all heart and was always hanging on. I just tried to ride it like any normal race, otherwise you start panicking, and if you are on the best horse it usually works out.
"It's my first ride here and my third ride in England. It's only my second season as an apprentice and I can't believe how it's going."
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