Ryan Moore was full of praise for Marvellous after the Aidan O'Brien-trained filly provided the jockey with a first victory in the Etihad Airways Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh.
Ballydoyle number one jockey Joseph O'Brien opted to partner eventual fifth Palace, allowing the all-conquering Moore to team up with the 10-1 chance, who was running for only the third time having finished sixth in the Leopardstown trial on March 30.
The Olly Stevens-trained Lightning Thunder, narrowly beaten by Miss France in the Newmarket equivalent, went off the 100-30 favourite and led going into the final furlong, but she could not cope with the winner's late surge and went down by three lengths.
Another Ballydoyle contender, Wonderfully, made the running and Marvellous still had plenty of work to do when Harry Bentley swept to the lead with a couple of furlongs remaining on the market leader, but her stamina came into the equation as O'Brien captured the prize for the sixth time in his career.
James Doyle, who won Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas on Kingman, finished third aboard the Dermot Weld-trained Vote Often.
Moore said: "You have to be very pleased, it was only her third run, in deep ground. She was drawn towards the outside and was a long way back. She had to do it the hard way, she passed nearly the whole field and you'd have to say it was a really good performance.
"I was taken off my feet after a furlong and couldn't really hold my spot. When I asked her, she picked up, I think she was just pretty inexperienced during the race. She should get further but you never know with these things. I'm sure she'd be a better filly on nicer ground."
O'Brien added: "She handled this sort of ground when she won her maiden at Navan last year. She then had the one run this year at Leopardstown and had a bit of a break after that as, like a lot of mine, she was coughing a bit.
"Joseph had a tough choice and he knew it was a close call, but at declaration time we didn't think it was going to get as soft as this.
"With Marvellous, the plan was to come here and then on to Epsom. You'd have to say she'd definitely get a mile and a quarter the way she ran to the line. She's a nice, compact filly and I don't think she'd have any problems handling Epsom."
The man who calls the shots is part-owner John Magnier, who said: "Aidan fancied her. In fact, I think he even asked Joseph to ride her and Joseph picked the other one.
"Her pedigree would indicate there's could be more to come to come, she's out of a sister to Giant's Causeway who won the Cherry Hinton. She's really well bred and probably bred to get a mile and a half. We'll have to listen to what they all say over the next few days, but I couldn't see any reason why not (run in the Oaks) if all goes well."
