Brian Ellison’s Northumberland Plate hero Onesmoothoperator bids to confirm his place in the Melbourne Cup when he lines up in the Ladbrokes Geelong Cup on Wednesday.

The six-year-old brought the house down at Newcastle in June when providing proud Geordie Ellison with a previously elusive victory in the ‘Pitmen’s Derby’, since when he has finished seventh in the Ebor at York and fourth behind star mare Kalpana in the September Stakes at Kempton.