Johnston's House storms home to strike on second start

Rochester House stepped up from an encouraging debut effort to win the 1m4f novice stakes in authoritative style on the track's first meeting of the season.

The three-year-old, who was a length second at Newcastle earlier this month, made every yard and quickened clear of odds-on favourite Rowland Ward to win by three lengths in the race named after the Luca Cumani-trained Derby winner who won at the track in 1998.

Charlie Johnston, assistant and son of trainer Mark, told Racing TV: "I was quite surprised at the market, I thought he should be favourite.