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Donald McCain pictured with Minella Trump (Shamela Hanley Photography)

Aintree news: Minella Trump represents McCain family 50 years on from Red Rum

By Sporting Life

09:45 · SUN April 09, 2023

Donald McCain feels that Minella Trump could be lurking under the radar for this year’s Randox Grand National as he bids to seal a second win in the Aintree showpiece – 50 years on from his father’s first victory with the legendary Red Rum.

The nine-year-old is a 66/1 chance for the world’s greatest chase and will arrive on Merseyside next Saturday in fine form, having won eight of his last nine starts over fences. He was last seen when returning from a near 10-month break with an outing over hurdles at Bangor last month.

Minella Trump is untried over the National fences as well as the race’s four and a quarter mile trip, but McCain feels that his charge is more than entitled to take his chance, as he looks to add to his victory in the race with Ballabriggs in 2011.

McCain said: “He’s in good nick and it was good to get the run into him the other day (when seventh over hurdles at Bangor last month). It wasn’t ideal to run over timber but there was nowhere else to go unless you want to get involved at Cheltenham.

“I’d sooner he’d have run in a chase, but there wasn’t one so we went over hurdles. He did what we wanted him to do in that he’s had a good blow and he’s come back in good shape and worked really well this morning (Wednesday). We’re all happy.

“He’d done a lot of racing and won a lot of races, so we just gave him a good break. It’s not been that smooth in that we’d have liked to have got a run in when it was appropriate, but the ground was very heavy and there was nowhere to go so we’ve had to do things slightly different – but it’s never smooth.

“He’s a great little horse and I don’t know if he’s going under the radar a bit, as he knows how to win. He’s probably not the most impressive when he’s doing it, but that’s probably the reason why he keeps managing to win, because he’s never doing it by too far. We’ve got a good racing weight in a big field handicap, so it’s a positive for sure.

“This race has never been on the radar for him at all until he started winning races and he went up and up and up in the handicap. It used to be that you’d look at a horse and think that they were the ideal type for the race, but now it’s become more about ratings and getting in than looking at a horse and wondering if they could jump around Aintree one day. Once he’d got that sort of rating, we thought we had to go with him really.

“I don’t know how he’ll take to the fences. Touch wood, he’s very neat but it’s a very different test for him. The other thing is that he’s done a lot of racing in small fields, but it is what it is. We’ve got a horse with a rating to get into the Grand National so we’re going. There’s only one way we’re going to find out.”

Five of Minella Trump’s victories over fences have come at Perth, where he has taken some notable scalps, including American Grand National winner Hewick and the current Randox Grand National favourite Corach Rambler.

And while it has been 10 months since his last run over fences, McCain doesn’t feel that his unorthodox route to Aintree will count against him on the big day.

He continued: “He’s beaten some smart horses, including the Grand National favourite Corach Rambler. He’s had a much smoother journey to Aintree and that sort of stuff and looks a thorough stayer and so on, but Minella Trump is in good nick and we’re looking forward to getting him there.

“Perth is a quick, flat track but it’s completely different to Aintree! He seems to come into himself in the spring and that sort of stuff, so racing in that season seems to suit him.

“We’re not there yet of course, but it would be very nice to have our first runner for a few years. It will be very special to have it for Tim Leslie, too, as it’s been an ambition of his since I started training to have a runner in the race. To get there and have a runner for him would be fantastic as he’s been a wonderful supporter.”

McCain has some happy memories of the National, having also been heavily involved with Amberleigh House, who sealed a fourth win in the race for his dad Ginger McCain back in 2004 to follow on from Red Rum (1973, 1974, 1977).

The 52-year-old took over the reins from his dad two years later and would win the race in his own right with Ballabriggs just five years later, something he revealed still fills him with pride.

He explained: “I felt very lucky to be involved in Amberleigh House and we were almost more involved in him. I rode him every day and my wife Sian looked after him and we only had the one good horse on the yard at the time. I kind of had it in my head that I’d already been heavily involved with a National winner and I was pretty happy with that.

“With Ballabriggs I can’t tell you how much we planned it and every stage just went 100% right, which doesn’t happen especially for as horse as big as him. A lot of work went in with Mick Meagher (the owner Trevor Hemmings’ Racing Manager) and everything we did we talked about it – probably all the way back to winning a handicap chase at Catterick (in January 2010).

“Every stage after that worked, so it was the culmination of about two years of planning, so it was very special. The only bit that didn’t go to plan was that we kind of thought we’d hang on to him a bit and he ended up in front the whole way!

“We’ve got a few for Aintree. I suppose because there’s only three days it’s probably a purer festival than Cheltenham as there’s not as many options to run a horse in, but we’re hoping to have between 8-12 runners there and everyone is looking forward to it.”

When asked if McCain feels there are any similarities between Ballabriggs and Minella Trump he instead likened him to another stable stalwart Cloudy Lane, who finished sixth in the race in 2008 and eighth in 2010.

He said: “Cloudy Lane wouldn’t be dissimilar to Minella Trump in that he wasn’t a particularly big horse either. He was a professional, hardworking horse who won a lot of races.

“I think Cloudy Lane would have had a much better chance of winning a modern day Grand National than the one he ran in, because although he was a good jumper, jumping the old Aintree fences probably just took a bit too much out of him. As an individual he’d be quite similar to Cloudy Lane as they’re both professional and hard-working horses.”

McCain was only a toddler when Red Rum won his first Grand National in 1973, but he explained that the legendary three-time winner of the race had a huge impact on his life from the get-go.

He said: “Red Rum has given us everything we’ve ever had. Dad was a very small-time trainer with one good horse and everything that you see now pretty much has all come through Red Rum, it’s as simple as that.

“From as far back as I kind of knew of him it was always the same. I was only six when he won his last National, so we spent our childhoods through Red Rum’s retirement and everything was just Red Rum.

“It’s corny but he was in the first box outside the kitchen and there were visitors all the time. I suppose it was like living at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower in that there were just people coming to see him all the time and he was a very all-consuming being.

“He was a celebrity in his own right and he loved doing it. He lived for it. I only ever saw him do one appearance right towards the very end, where I saw him go to a bookmakers around here. It was only then when I realised how much he enjoyed the whole thing. The door only opened so far and I said to the head lad that he wouldn’t go in there.

“He said to leave him to it and Red Rum just stood and looked at the door for a second. It wasn’t very wide at all but straight through he went! He was then stood in this bookmakers getting all the attention and he loved it.

“He was a huge character. He knew he was the king to the point that he used to go for lead outs every day and when he walked from the yard past the shops and everything, he was loving every second. As soon as he walked down a street with nobody watching he’d drop his head. He was a show off!”

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