Ginger McCain

Donald McCain (born 21 September 1930 in Southport, Lancashire), better known as Ginger, is a former National Hunt trainer, based in Cholmondley, Cheshire, perhaps best known for training the legendary horse Red Rum.

Red Rum

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 Southport. He bought a horse for 6,000 guineas, which later turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum.

Grand National

McCain trained the winner of the Grand National four times, thrice with Red Rum and once with Amberleigh House. Perhaps what is even more remarkable is that his first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart. Fred Rimell is the only other person to have trained four winners of the race.

Titles

• 1973, Red Rum
• 1974, Red Rum
• 1977, Red Rum
• 2004, Amberleigh House

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 8th place, Ebony Light (fell) and Amberleigh House (pulled up).

Sexism controversy

In 2005, McCain was involved in a sexism row after stating in an interview that he thought a woman jockey could never win the Grand National. This angered Carrie Ford, the only female rider in that year's race....
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