He ain't heavy, he's a trainer - and a pretty good one too!

You have to go back more than 40 years to Nigel Angus and Roman Warrior in 1975 to find the most recent winner of the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup to be trained in Scotland.

As a proud Scotsman – “I suppose I am, but I don't go around every day in a kilt!” he says – Keith Dalgleish would dearly love to end this barren period in the nation's biggest race.

“We won the Bronze Cup with Circuitous [in 2013] and it's been a long time since a Scottish-trained horse won it but it's a massive ask for us to do it this year,” admits the Carluke-based trainer, whose representative in the showpiece sprint handicap is former Hugo Palmer-trained seven-year-old Ascription, whom he bought for 13,000gns at the Newmarket July Sale.