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Eve Johnson Houghton looks to have another live Royal Ascot contender on her hands with Bobsleigh (5/1) freewheeling to victory in Epsom’s opener this afternoon.

Eve Johnson Houghton looks to have another live Royal Ascot contender on her hands with Bobsleigh (5/1) freewheeling to victory in Epsom's opener this afternoon.

He showed a smart turn of foot to make a winning debut at Brighton at the beginning of May and did so once more to remain unbeaten.

As expected, the early pace was strong. The Hugo Palmer-trained Balon D'Or set his sights on home approaching the two-furlong pole and briefly looked to have got away from the pack. However, an ice-cool Charlie Bishop could be spotted travelling into the contest sweetly and the son of Elzaam produced a power-pack finish down the outside to get on top and draw away for a comfortable three-quarters of a length success. Hugo Palmer's Balon D'Or (4/1) stuck to his task well once headed to finish runner-up, while the well-punted favourite Hateem (9/4), caught the eye with some nice late work to grab the third spot after losing several lengths from rearing out of the stalls.

It was a first success in the contest for trainer Eve Johnson Houghton as well as a first for jockey Charlie Bishop.

Charlie Bishop spoke to ITV Racing's Oli Bell after the race and he said:

I kind of thought he would be outpaced early, just watching the other horses in the race's form there seemed to be a lot of speed. I was very, sort of, cautious, I wanted to keep him in a rhythm and give him one smooth run. It's never ideal having to go round the whole field but he's done it extremely well

"He's got the job done today, he's done a fantastic job… The team were very bullish, I barely had sat on him apart from riding him at Brighton so a lot of credit goes to everyone at home."

Steph, the groom who rides the two-year-old at home spoke to Oli and said:

"He's a legend, he's so laidback. He's done everything right."

Johnson Houghton said: "I think we've got a Royal Ascot two-year-old on our hands, he's pretty exciting and it went exactly as we planned.

"We thought they'd go really fast, so I said to Charlie to get him balanced and wait until he comes to you. I knew he had a good turn of foot, but it was whether he could make up that much ground – I thought he was pretty impressive.

"I don't know which race at Ascot. He's got plenty of boot so we could drop back to five and the Coventry over six is obviously going to be the hottest race.

"This syndicate is great, it's a fantastic day out for them. Anthony Bromley and I did a pretty good job picking him up for not much money (€17,000) and they are having the time of their lives.

"Hopefully we can have a good season as they usually sell them at the end of their first year. He was small when we bought him, but he thrived since he's been gelded.

"The name comes from the dam, Lady Rosebud. Rosebud was a sledger."