Over The Stable Door: In praise of Ginger, trainer of Red Rum and National saviour

Donald (Ginger) was born in Southport in 1930. His first taste of Aintree came at the tender age of six when he watched the race from Canal Turn the year Reynoldstown won. He was mesmerised and the dream began.

After National Service, where Ginger enjoyed success at boxing and motorbike scrambling, he opened a car saleroom and began taxi driving. He kept a few horses stabled behind the saleroom close to Crosby beach where he worked them and in 1952 applied for a training permit.

It would be 12 years before he celebrated his first winner when 14-year-old San Lorenzo won an Aintree hurdle race. By which time he had married Beryl, a local secretary.

Winners followed each year, even though he was still driving taxis, and he took out a professional training licence in 1969.

It was in his cab that Donald met Noel Le Mare, a local millionaire businessman who was later to become the owner of his most famous history maker, Red Rum.

Rummie was bought at Doncaster sales in 1972 already qualified for the 1973 Grand National – which he duly won. His sale price of £6,000 was a considerable amount when the average weekly wage was £30.

He suffered a common racehorse ailment similar to brittle feet which would be a disadvantage but not serious enough to prevent him running.

If the condition had hindered his ability up to that point, then Ginger McCain’s routine of working on the beach provided the ideal relief for such a problem.

Rummie’s daily salt water paddle obviously proved enormously beneficial and allowed the talent of a future national hero to emerge.

Red Rum’s three National victories and two seconds between 1973 and 1977 came at a time when Aintree needed them most.

The course, under huge financial pressure, had been sold to property developer Bill Davies in 1973.

He was uninterested in racing and in 1975 tripled the cost of admission tickets, resulting in attendance figures hitting rock bottom the year L’Escargot won, sending Aintree into uncertainty.

It was thanks to Ginger and Rummie, hailed as national heroes after their third victory, that the course was eventually saved.

Their constant fundraising and publicity shoots over the next ten years helped the Jockey Club raise enough in donations to finally buy the course back in 1984, securing the future of the most prestigious steeplechase in history for future generations.

Ginger was never one to mince his words. Some of his forthright views I have to condemn on principle – for example his opposition to women riding in the National, claiming none would ever be capable of winning. He dismissed Carrie Ford as “a broodmare” before she rode Forest Gunner to finish fifth in 1995.

Other opinions he held I passionately agree with, such as his refusal to bend to the will of the animal activists, his disagreement with fence tampering and ground levelling, particularly in recent years.

He foresaw the new threat from lowering obstacles and lessening drops. This would merely increase speed, resulting in worse accidents and increased opposition.

He was right, we are pushing the race nearer a noose again with every alteration, but this time there will be no Ginger or Rummie around to help us save it.

I have been asked to work at the Prix de L’Arc next Sunday at Longchamp. There is another area mine and Ginger’s views differ. He used to say “there is only one good thing to come out of France and that is good-looking women”.

Sorry Ginger, but the Gallic men aren’t so bad either.