Donald McCain still going flat out
Donald McCain may have missed one of the biggest wins of his career last month, but little else slips under the radar of this thoughtful trainer.
He was missing from Overturn’s victory in the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle three weeks ago because of a flat tyre but there appears to be enough fizz left in the horse for McCain to consider an ambitious summer programme.
McCain may have cast his net far wider that the days when his father, Ginger, seemed to know the routes to few other places that Aintree, Haydock and other northern jumping tracks but Ireland has not yielded a winner yet. That may change when Overturn (pictured) runs in one of the highlights of next week’s Galway Festival, the Galway Hurdle.
The initial thought after winning at Newcastle was to conserve the resources of this front-runner but the horse has had the final say. “He came out of it tremendously well,” McCain said. “I had considered, somewhere along the line, giving him a break but he's in great nick and seems to be thriving on his racing at the moment.
“It was one race at a time and once the Northumberland Plate came off we had to look at options. He's in the Ebor, but that's another month down the line. The only thing stopping us going to Galway is that it's notoriously difficult for an English horse to win an Irish handicap. But I’ve talked to both of the handicappers, English and Irish, and they’ve both said to me that it becomes a little bit more of a level playing field as you get up in the weights.
“He’s got a style of racing that makes these very competitive handicaps less competitive. You’d like to think that he’d be out of most of the trouble that occurs in them. At this time of year opportunities are more limited, and you have to go where they are, and it's a massive prize to be competing for. Whether we are good enough or not is a different kettle of fish, but he’ll be going there to be competitive and run a big race.”
Overturn’s competitive run could then switch back to the Flat for York next month. "He's still in the Ebor,” McCain said, laughing perhaps at the audacity of challenging for so many of the totemic handicaps on both sides of the Irish Sea in such a short space of time. “He's a smashing horse and when he tells me he needs a break, we will give him one. But he’s enjoying his work so we’ll take it one race at a time.”
Last season Peddlers Cross took the five hurdle races that McCain ran him in and devoured the lot, including victories at the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals. One of the most exciting horses to have emerged from the last jumps season, Peddlers Cross offers McCain a range of options for this winter. If he keeps the horse over hurdles he could run in either the Champion or Stayers’ Hurdles or make use of his slick jumping in the two or three-mile novice chase divisions, but the likely starting point will be the ‘Fighting Fifth’ Hurdle at Newcastle in November.
“He came back in at the start of the week and he’s thrived this summer,” McCain said. He’s probably grown a little bit as well and we’re really pleased with him. It's a long road back but we're on that road now. His first run back is more than likely going to be over hurdles and then we’ll decide what route we go down.
“It would be no surprise to see me run him in one of the good two-mile hurdle races first somewhere, maybe something like the Fighting Fifth and see where we go. But we’ll take him as we find him through the first part of the season and see how his training goes and make a decision after that there. But I’d rather underdo him trip-wise to start with, rather than overdo him.”
Before next week’s trip to Ireland McCain will need to engage another rider for Overturn after his stable jockey, Jason Maguire broke an ankle and fractured shin bone in a fall at Worcester last week.
But there was better news for Davy Russell, who looks as though he will be fit for the Galway meeting after he took part in a schooling session at Tipperary as he stepped up his recovery after breaking his ankle in a fall at Listowel seven weeks ago.
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