by Nick Seddon
Donald McCain refuses to rest on his laurels as he bids to build on a record-breaking season last term, which saw him notch up a century of winners quicker than anyone else.
The 52-year-old is the son of legendary racehorse trainer Ginger McCain, who is best known for training the three-time Randox Grand National winner Red Rum.
But McCain junior has achieved great success in his own right from his base at Cholmondeley, Cheshire – most notably winning the National himself at Aintree Racecourse in 2011 with Ballabriggs.
His tally of 155 winners from 663 runners last term was his best yet and two better than his previous record haul in 2011-12, when he had stars like Peddlers Cross and Overturn at his disposal.
Now armed with a new crop of promising youngsters, he is hopeful that more good days are on their way.
The Merseyside-born trainer said: “We’ve got fewer horses now than we had 10 years ago, so to do what we did with fewer horses and a better strike rate was lovely.
“I can’t say we’ve got more quality now because I had Peddlers Cross and Ballabriggs previously, but I’m in a better place in terms of the fact that you don’t get older without being a bit wiser. We have a great team of people here and I train for a great bunch of owners, so in that sense we’re in a better place.
“I lost about three quarters of my first team (in 2015) and it takes a long time to build it back up. It is what it is and we have some nice young horses coming through now, but they’ve got to keep progressing.
“We’ve made a good start to this season and I don’t believe we’ve run as many this summer as before. We’ve been ticking away nicely without doing anything flash. A horse won last Thursday after 1,000 days off the track (Nayati) and if they can keep doing that it would be great.”
McCain does not shy away from his family’s long-standing affinity with the Grand National and he hinted that he could hand an entry in next year’s Aintree showpiece to a yard favourite.
He explained: “Minella Trump has been an absolute legend for us over fences and he’s going up and up, so it’s going to get very tough for him now.
“He’ll be back in the spring and he might have a Grand National entry. I’m not necessarily saying he’s a National horse, but he deserves an entry in it and we’ll see how we go between now and then.
“Grand National horses are hard to find, the last National horse I had was The Last Samuri who was second in 2016, so it’s not happened for a while.”
A big star for McCain last term was the seven-year-old Minella Drama, whose wins included a Grade Two conest at Haydock Park. The son of Flemensfirth ought to have plenty to offer yet over fences and McCain is keen to send him to Carlisle for his first start.
He explained: “He was kind of unlucky last year, as he’s a very good horse. He’s a bit wild but he’s very talented and I think last season just proved he wasn’t a true two-miler, so we will try two and a half miles and we might even get a bit further.
“The Colin Parker is an option but there’s also a valuable graduation chase a week later there which he also qualifies for.”
Donald McCain’s three horses to follow this year…
Richmond Lake
“He’s not flashy in his work but he was impressive from the first day he ran. The run behind Jonbon at Haydock took plenty out of him and truthfully we should probably have finished his season after his next start. He’ll go novice chasing and the Grade Two Altcar Novices’ Chase at Haydock Park is a nice race to aim for.”
Navajo Pass
“Last season was a bit of a disaster but the season before was great and he defeated Buveur D’Air at Haydock Park. He got an injury after that and it just took him a long time to get over it, so last season just didn’t work out. He seems in really good shape and if we can get him back to anything like two seasons ago, he’s on a very workable handicap mark.”
Jungle Jack
“He was qualified for the EBF Final at Sandown and I didn’t think he was man enough for it, so I thought we’d go to Bangor. Unfortunately we met another horse doing exactly the same thing in Harbour Lake and I think they were two very smart horses who were trying to avoid a big day. I imagine he’ll go jumping fences but whether we do that straight away we’ll see.”
