Habour Watch

The latest renewal of the time honoured Group 2 Prix Robert Papin (1100m) has been won in brilliant fashion by a first-crop son of two-time Emirates Park visitor Harbour Watch (Ire).

Tis Marvelleous, a colt trained at Lambourn in England by Clive Cox, stamped himself as a high-class juvenile in winning the French 2-year-old feature by an authoritative two-and-a-half lengths margin. The son of Harbour Watch was landing his second consecutive win from three starts, having scored by no fewer than eight lengths at his previous outing.

Winning trainer Clive Cox confidently predicted bigger and better things for the son of Harbour Watch after his demolition of a small but select six horse field. "I think we may well target the [Group 1] Prix Morny,” suggested Cox after the impressive win. “He is in the Gimcrack [Stakes] as well at York and we will decide. We will take a view and see where the nicest ground is. I am quite relaxed though, because I think he is good enough to continue our progress forward.”

Cox went on to describe Tis Marvelleous as “a proper horse who is going the right way.”

Tis Marvelleous is first stakes winner of Harbour Watch’s fledgling stud career. The Group 2 winner is one of six first-crop 2-year-old winners to have already represented the UK freshman sire in the first half of the 2016 European racing season.

The success of Tis Marvelleous put the youngster’s name in some elite company. First run in 1892, amongst the many celebrated winners of the Maisons-Laffitte contest are world stud book luminaries Zeddaan and Blushing Groom.