Donald McCain: Stable Tour for 2022-23 including Minella Drama and Barrichello

Getting better all the time

Donald McCain has admitted even he was surprised by the success of his team last season but believes he is in a “better place” to build on what was his best ever campaign for both winners and prize money.

The 52 year old trainer has spent years rebuilding his operation since losing more than 50 horses in 2015 when prominent owners Paul and Clare Rooney decided to relocate their stock to other yards.

And his patience and dedication paid dividends when his team at Bankhouse Stables in Cheshire celebrated an impressive 155 winners from 663 runners for the 2021-22 campaign, also becoming the first yard to reach 100 winners for the season.

Those numbers eclipsed McCain’s previous best form of the 2011-12 season, when he had more runners and flagbearers like Ballabriggs, Peddlers Cross, Cinders And Ashes and Overturn.

Speaking to The Jockey Club, he recalls: “It was lovely and it wasn’t really something we planned. I’m still slightly surprised that we did it! It was great - we just wanted to train winners and I never ever thought I’d train the numbers of winners I’d trained in the past, so to beat it was special. We’ve been through a bit along the way, so it was nice.

“I’d love to train the best part of 100 winners a year if I can, but after that I’m relaxed. To have 100 winners is a great year and we’re not going to replace a lot of the horses who did a lot of the winning last year so it’s going to be harder for them. It was just a nice thing to do after everything that’s gone on.

“We’ve got fewer horses now than we had 10 years ago. We used to have another yard next door and I won’t go down that road again. To do what we did with fewer horses – and though I’m not a believer in it – a better strike rate, was lovely.

“I can’t say we’ve got more quality now because I had Peddlers Cross and Ballabriggs and others, but as a generalisation there are some nice young horses around the place and 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.

“It doesn’t happen overnight, I lost about three quarters to seven eighths of my first team 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.”

Summer lovin'

McCain has already hit the ground running this term and after a strong summer currently sits second in the trainers’ championship behind early pace-setter Fergal O’Brien. His current tally of 46 winners for the campaign is also significantly better than where he was at this time last year and he admits he is itching to get going this winter.

He continued: “We’ve made a good start to this season and I don’t believe we’ve run as many this summer as before because we didn’t think we had as big a team for the summer.

“We’ve been ticking away nicely without a great urge to do anything flash. A horse won the other day after 1,000 days off the track (Nayati) and if they can keep doing that it would be great. We never have any grand plan to take the world by storm or anything like that, but if we can keep the horses healthy and ticking over you’re going to keep training winners.”

While horses trained by McCain can be found running at racecourses all over the country, he is also passionate about the northern racing scene.

He explained: “I love sending my novices to Carlisle as it’s the best track in the country and any trainer would send their chasers there. You meet every fence uphill, which is always the nicest way to jump a fence, so it’s a good experience. It doesn’t happen too quickly for them and they’re not getting rushed off their feet, so it’s always a good experience.

“I’m a northern trainer, I’ve got a northern stable jockey and I like running horses in the north of England. We get a bit of stick through the season for not coming down south a bit more than we do, but if people looked a bit closer we’re often running for better money so it’s not often as black and white as that. You can run at places like Newbury, but often you can be running for more money at Kelso and places like that – it’s all relative.

“A lot of the horses that we tend to buy are more suited to northern racing and that’s because a lot of my owners want horses running in the north as they’re further north than me. We’re right in the middle of the country though and we’ll go anywhere. The other day I had two winners in a day, one was at Plumpton and one was at Perth, so we will go anywhere.

“It’s all about winners for me, but we’re not in the position money-wise to go straight out and get the next big thing and that sort of stuff. You tend to buy a number of young horses who are hopefully nice types and I’ve always said that you don’t get a good horse, a good horse arrives, so hopefully there’s a couple of good horses. If we get a good one, we know we can do a job with them.”

Hughes the man

McCain also has the benefit of two-time champion jockey Brian Hughes being an integral part of his team. The rider joined an exclusive club when reaching the 200 winner mark last term, a tally that had only ever been managed previously by Richard Johnson, Sir AP McCoy and Peter Scudamore.

His trainer went on: “Many years ago there was half a chance of me having a stable jockey as champion jockey when Jason Maguire was here. That didn’t happen as AP was around and he used to blow things out of the water, but Brian’s numbers are right up there. To have a dual champion jockey as stable jockey is great and it’s another feather in our cap to have him on board.

“It’s the same type of thing as with the yard hitting the milestone - we never really talked about him being champion jockey again. He wanted to be, of course, and his agent Richard Hale – who is one of my best friends – piped up saying we could get 200 and all of a sudden the goalposts moved! We ran a lot of horses through the year and it was getting quite tight towards the end, so it was a huge achievement for a northern-based jockey.”

Stable Stars

One of McCain’s big stars last term was the seven year old Minella Drama, whose two victories over fences included the Grade Two Altcar Novices’ Chase at Haydock in January.

The son of Flemensfirth still has plenty to give over the big obstacles and McCain said: “He was kind of unlucky last year, as he’s a very good horse. I thought he’d maybe win the Pendil Novices’ Chase and he looked like winning it turning in, but his finishing effort was a bit tame.

“He didn’t scope 100% afterwards and then he went to Ayr and if I’d have had my time again we’d have gone to Aintree because finishing second in a Grade Two doesn’t feel the same as finishing second in a Grade One at Aintree – and without a mistake at the last down the back he’d have won at Ayr.

“He’s a bit wild and he’s a bit feral 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 this season.

“The Colin Parker is an option but there’s also a valuable graduation chase a week later at Carlisle which he also qualifies for as he’s only won twice over fences. It’s highly likely that he’ll start over fences at Carlisle though, he may have a run before that over hurdles but we’ll see.”

Another exciting novice from last term was the six year old Barrichello, who recorded four wins from six starts over timber - including in a Listed contest on Betfair Chase Day at Haydock Park last November.

Barrichello struggled on his most recent start in the Grade Two Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr in April, but McCain believes there is every chance he will prove to be better over fences this term.

He said: “He’s grand and has just started fast work. He had a great year and is going to go novice chasing this time and should hopefully be a better chaser than he was a hurdler. You’re not going to win as many chases because you’re running off your handicap mark in open novice chases, but he’s pretty useful.

“I probably shouldn’t have run him in the Scottish Champion Hurdle and if I had my time again I’d have gone straight to the boys’ race at Aintree, but with things being back to front last year it didn’t look that strong a race. It just found him out by the fact he was a novice chaser rather than a handicap hurdler, but he had a great year. I always thought he’d stay further, but he seems to have got quicker so we’ll just have to play it by ear.”

One horse who struggled last term was Navajo Pass, who struggled to replicate the form which saw him take the notable scalp of dual champion hurdler Buveur D'Air when winning the 2021 Grade Two The New One Hurdle at Haydock Park.

However, McCain said: “Last season was a bit of a disaster with Nav. The season before was great and he won that race at Haydock. He then got an injury just before Aintree and it just took him a long time to get over it, so last season just didn’t really work out.

“He seems in really good nick at the moment so we’ll see and he may even have a run on the Flat on our way to getting him ready. He’s always had his own ideas about life a little bit but he’s a talented horse and if we can get him back on towards anything like two seasons ago, he’s on a very workable handicap mark.”

More horses to follow

McCain also provided updates on his plans for some of his other hopes for the winter:

Minella Trump (Tim Leslie)

“He’s been an absolute legend because we were getting a little bit lost with him somewhere along the line. He ran well in his first chase at Carlisle and then he didn’t have a very nice experience at Doncaster. We weren’t sure about trying again, but he won back over hurdles so we tried him again and he’s been an absolute revelation since.

“He beat Hewick at Perth one day and he’s going up and up and it’s going to get very tough for him now. He’s on a break and 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.”

A Different Kind (Dene Rowe)

“He’s a smart little horse and I bought him off Derek O'Connor, who I get on very well with. He won his first five for us and then he was a bit unlucky at Cheltenham -- we were planning on following horses and the leader Hillcrest came down and he ended up in front over two and a half and just didn’t quite get home.

“I’d always planned on running him at Aintree and he was probably just on the go for a long time as he fell away. He could well end up in the valuable handicap hurdle at Haydock Park on Betfair Chase Day.”

Richmond Lake (Exors of the late Trevor Hemmings)

“He surprised us a bit last year because his point to point form wasn’t very good, for all that they liked him at home. At home he’s very straightforward and not flashy in his work but he was impressive from the first day he ran.

“The run behind Jonbon at Haydock (in the Grade Two Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle) probably took plenty out of him and although he looked beaten to my eye, Brian said he wasn’t beaten when he fell at the last at Kelso (in the Grade Two Premier Novices’ Hurdle).

“Truthfully we probably should have finished his season there, but we wanted to try and have a runner or two at Aintree for Mr Hemmings and rightly so.

“He’ll go novice chasing from two to two and a half miles and he probably wants the latter. If you’ve got a nice novice chaser for Trevor Hemmings, the Grade Two Altcar Novices’ Chase at Haydock Park is a nice race to aim for.”

Tim Pat (Beswick Brothers Bloodstock)

“He only looked okay over hurdles and after winning a novice over timber we went straight over fences, which I don’t normally do. He won first time over fences at Carlisle and then he won the Tim Molony Handicap Chase at Haydock over three and a half miles. It wasn’t the strongest renewal but the manner that he did it means that he could be quite an exciting staying chaser for the season.”

Jungle Jack (Tim Leslie)

“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 as he was well handicapped. Unfortunately we met another horse doing exactly the same thing in Harbour Lake and I think they were two very smart horses who met at Bangor trying to avoid a big day.

“I imagine he’ll go jumping fences but whether we do that straight away we’ll see racing wise and also I’ve not schooled him just yet.”

Mackenberg (Tim Leslie)

“He is a useful horse but an average enough jumper of a fence, so we’ve had to be careful with where we send him. We had a brainwave when trying to find runners for Tim at Aintree and sent him back over hurdles and you could just see he had been jumping fences, so it just didn’t work out. We’ll go back chasing again and he’s a talented horse.”

Maximilian (Owners Group 099)

“He only does enough, which isn’t the biggest fault in the world, and he was actually a bit more impressive than the winning distances suggested for his two wins. He looks like one who will go over two and a half and maybe even three miles as a novice hurdler and he’s got a great pedigree. He’s a thoroughly likeable horse.”

Grey Skies (Thomas Fearn)

“He made a great start because he’d had a couple of runs on the track without impressing before he won his point to point. He came to us and surprised us a bit at Uttoxeter the first day by winning, before doing it again at Kelso.

“He ran well up at Ayr and he’ll go novice chasing now, he’s plenty of experience and he’s just a thoroughly likeable horse by a sire in Cloudings who’s been great to me over the years.”

Gold Emery (Tim & Miranda Johnson)

“He was a bit disappointing in point to points but I spoke to Colin Bowe and he said ‘take a chance on him’ and he’s come out and won well at Carlisle. He’s a great big monster of a thing and we only got the one run into him which is unfortunate, but I don’t think we’re going to be long over hurdles anyway to be honest.”

Since Day One (Colin Strang Steel)

“Unfortunately April Strang Steel died over the summer. She was a lovely lady to train for but her husband Colin is keeping the horse going on and he looks every inch a chaser. We’ll start him off at two miles in novice handicap chases and hopefully we can do a bit of good in April’s memory.”

Glory Bridge (Exors of the late Trevor Hemmings)

“He came late-ish on in the season and did his job well (at Sedgefield). He’s a big fine horse and he’s a little bit nervous but he only arrived late in the day so to win his race was great. We were going to try and run him again and then the ground went so we just left him.”

Geromino (Mr G E Fitzpatrick)

“He’s grand and he’s been a star for us, I don’t know how far into the season he’ll go but for a handy little horse he’s won a lot of races. He’s genuine and he tries and that’s all it is and because of that we’ll win plenty of races. He’ll run again at Warwick on Thursday and then we’ll see. He’ll be around as long as the ground stays good-ish.”

Masked Crusader (The Good Stock Syndicate)

“He had his wind tied up at Kelso after nearly getting beat. His Carlisle run was good but he’s a really big strong type now and every inch a chaser.”

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