Malton trainer Brian Ellison is hoping to fulfil a lifelong dream with victory in his hometown Northumberland Plate

The Newcastle-born handler would love to break his duck in the race known as the Pitmen’s Derby and run just three days before his 70th birthday.

Ellison was born on the day the same day red-hot favourite, Souep, won the Plate and he went mighty close to winning the race back in 2017 with Seamour.

Dual-purpose handler Ellison’s horse is yet to finish out of the first three in six visits to Gosforth Park, most recently finishing third in the Marathon on All-Weather Championships Finals Day.

Ellison said: “He’s in good form, I’m really happy with him. We could have done with a better draw (stall 17), but that’s where we are. He likes the track and has loads in his favour, we just want to get a nice position.

“His last run at York was a bit of a farce. The handicapper put him up 3lb for it, so he obviously ran well, but they crawled into the straight.

“Anyway, it served a purpose and we’ve been happy with him since, so we’ll see how we go.”

Alan King’s Trueshan will concede upwards of 19lb to each of his 19 rivals. Sixth in last year’s renewal King’s charge went on to win the Goodwood Cup, the Prix du Cadran and the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day.

Connections had hoped to bid for Gold Cup glory at Royal Ascot last week but like 12 months ago, the ground was deemed too quick and he was re-routed to Newcastle.

King chose to claim 5lb off his stable star in the 2021 Northumberland Plate by booking Rhys Clutterbuck, but this season he will be ridden by his regular partner Hollie Doyle, meaning he will carry the welter burden of 10st 8lb.

Next in the list is Ed Dunlop’s Red Verdon on 9st 3lb, followed by the Hugo Palmer-trained Rajinsky, who is on the same weight less the 5lb claim of top apprentice Harry Davies.

Trueshan is one of three runners for King along with 2019 winner Who Dares Wins and Rainbow Dreamer.

Other leading contenders include Andrew Balding’s pair of Spirit Mixer and Valley Forge and Bandinelli from Charlie Appleby’s yard.