Clive Cox has spoken of his pride and the “huge satisfaction” Tis Marvellous provided when landing the Beverley Bullet for the second year in a row.
The eight-year-old broke the Westwood five-furlong track record when blitzing his way to victory in the Listed contest in 2021 and showed the fire still burns brightly when repeating the dose 12 months later.
Sent off the 7-2 favourite, he was again ridden by Paul Hanagan, and although less imperious than the year previous, showed plenty of tenacity to fight back and edge out Arecibo despite being headed inside the final furlong.
It was the gelding's ninth career success from 42 starts and Cox uses the fact that one of his stable stalwarts is still able to compete at the top of his game as validity his methods are working at Beechdown Stables.
"He was spectacular and it was a mirror image performance of last year, it was great, wonderful to watch," said Cox.
"We saved him for the race on Saturday because he's quite high in the handicap now and his previous years have included top-end handicaps. But with him being rated so highly, we saved him and I'm delighted that came off as hoped.
"It's an age old saying 'horses for courses' and he also enjoys Ascot. This was a similar 'thumbs up' performance that he clearly loves Beverley in a similar way.
"It gives me a lot of pride to know I've got a horse of that calibre performing at the top of his game as an eight-year-old, it gives me huge satisfaction and belief in what we are doing."
On where the future lies for the son of Harbour Watch, he added: "He does have an entry in the Abbaye.
"Obviously that would be a huge step up, but he's in good form. From a seasonal point of view it's the driest time we've had for a long time, we'll just see how the ground goes and we'd be happier on a sounder surface given a preference."
