Trio

Trained by Eve Johnson Houghton at her yard in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, Trio is part of a setup that has hit real form this season — 42 winners is a serious tally and suggests a yard operating with real confidence. Johnson Houghton has a reputation for placing her horses well, and Trio is a good example of that. The horse opened its account at Leicester in October 2025 and has just added a second win at Epsom Downs this week, which is no easy track. Epsom's famously undulating, camber-heavy circuit sorts out horses quickly, and winning there means something.

Charles Bishop is the regular partner, having ridden Trio in 6 of its 9 races and winning 1 of them — roughly 1 in every 6 rides together. That's a modest conversion rate on paper, but the broader picture is more forgiving: Bishop has been aboard for plenty of those placed efforts too, and continuity between jockey and horse tends to matter over time as they learn each other's rhythms.

Where Trio really comes alive is at a mile and one or two furlongs. At that distance, the horse has won 2 of 6 races — 1 in every 3 — which is a genuinely strong return at this level. Most of Trio's races have come in Class 4 company, the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, and winning 1 in 4 there is respectable. The recent form reading 1-7-5-3-3-3 tells an interesting story: back-to-back thirds, then another third, two mid-pack efforts, and then a win. Horses can take time to find their feet during a season, and that win this week suggests Trio may be rounding into its best form at just the right moment. With the yard firing and a jockey who knows this horse well, there is every reason to keep watching.