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.

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 that turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum.

McCain trained the winner of the Grand National steeplechase four times, three times in the 1970s with Red Rum and a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House. His first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart.

The 1973 Grand National is considered by many to be the greatest Grand National and was a duel of nine minutes two seconds between Red Rum and Crisp, with L'Escargot (a previous double Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and future 1975 Grand National winner) well beaten in third place. The winning time broke the course record that had stood for nearly 40 years and remained unbeaten until it was bettered by Mr Frisk in the 1990 Grand National immediately after a number of safety changes sped up the course for that year.

Fred Rimell is the only other person to train four winners of the Grand National.

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