Ginger McCain

Donald "Ginger" McCain (21 September 1930 – 19 September 2011) was an English National Hunt horse trainer, perhaps best known for training Red Rum. A successful trainer who won many races, he trained Red Rum at a Southport beach on Merseyside, where McCain was born.

A former national serviceman in the Royal Air Force as a motorcycle despatch rider, he was also a member of the RAF scrambling team.^[1]

Horseracing

McCain applied for a training permit in 1953 and began training horses in 1962, using small stables behind the showroom of his used-car store in his hometown of Southport. He bought a horse for 6,000 guineas,^[2] which later turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum.

McCain went on to train the winner of the world-famous Grand National steeplechase four times, three times in the 1970s with Red Rum and a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House.^[3] His first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart.

The 1973 Grand National^[4] is considered by many to be the greatest Grand National and was a famous dual of 9 mins 2 secs between Red Rum and Crisp (horse), with L'Escargot (horse) (a previous double Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and future 1975 Grand National winner) well beaten in third place, breaking the course record which had stood for nearly 40 years and would remain unbeaten until it was demolished by Mr Frisk in the 1990 Grand National immediately after a number of safety changes had speeded up the course for that year.^[5]

Fred Rimell is the only other person to have trained four winners of the race.

In his final Grand National in 2006, McCain entered three horses; Inca Trail, who ran well for a long way until running out of stamina two fences from home and finishing in eighth place, Ebony Light (who fell) and Amberleigh House (who was pulled up).^[6]

McCain retired after the 2006 National, handing over control of the stable to his son, Donald, Jr., who trained 2011 National winner Ballabriggs.

After watching the 2011 Grand National, where there were two equine fatalities, he expressed concern that the lowering of the fences in aid of safety was having the opposite impact through speeding up the race and increasing the risk of equine fatalities.^[7] Following further fatalities in the 2012 Grand National, a far cry from the lower equine fatalities of the 1950s and 1960s (apart from the carnage of four equine fatalities at the 1954 Grand National and where there was an unusually small field of runners), these concerns are being increasingly openly expressed by other National Hunt and Grand National experts and the wisdom of the entire ongoing approach to improving safety from the 1989 Grand National onwards is coming under close scrutiny.

Personal life

McCain married Beryl Harris in Southport in March 1961; the couple had two children: Joanne and Donald, Jr.^[8] McCain worked as a taxi driver to supplement his income as a trainer prior to finding Grand National success. It was as a taxi driver that he became acquainted with Noel le Mare, on whose behalf Red Rum was purchased.^[8]

Death

McCain died from cancer on 19 September 2011, two days before his 81st birthday.^[9] On the opening day of the 2012 Grand National a bronze statue of McCain was unveiled at Aintree Racecourse looking down on the winning post where his famous victories unfolded.^[10]

References