RED RUM TRAINER'S GRANDSON WILL RIDE IN GRAND NATIONAL WITH LOCK OF HORSE'S HAIR IN GLOVE

The grandson of legendary racehorse trainer Ginger McCain is to ride in his first ever Grand National - with a lock of Red Rum's hair in his riding gloves for good luck.

Toby McCain-Mitchell, 24, only turned professional last year but will become the third generation of his family to have an association with the world’s most famous steeplechase at Aintree. His grandfather Ginger McCain famously saddled Red Rum to win the race on three occasions in 1973, 1974 and 1977 - a feat that has never been matched.

McCain-Mitchell’s mum, Joanne, kept locks of Red Rum's mane after the superstar horse’s death in 1995 and it has been sewn into the bridle of horses running for the family over the Grand National fences ever since. On Saturday Toby will attempt to navigate the four and a quarter mile course and 30 fences with a lock of it in his gloves.

• Grand National 2026 pinstickers' guide: All 34 runners rated, best chances and top 4 prediction

• Katie Price's driving offences in full - as she's banned from roads for seventh time

McCain-Mitchell said: “Typically all of Donald’s horses will have a bit of Red Rum’s mane sewn into the brow bands if they run over the National fences.

“It’s a bit silly but it’s just for good luck. He used to do well over them, so it can’t do any harm. My mum’s been asked if she hogged the hair when he passed away! I think she did say the supply is getting low, which is why I’ve kept my bit.”

McCain-Mitchell is due to become the first of Ginger’s five grandchildren to have an association with the race, though aside from his mum’s excitement and nerves, he revealed it would likely be a low-key day for the family on Saturday.

He went on: “Mum is definitely bursting with pride and excitement, but I can’t imagine she’ll be watching much of it! I’d say she will go and stand at grandad’s famous spot where the plaque is, just behind where the bookies are, so I’d say she’d have her back turned for most of it!

“I’d say a few of Donald’s side of the family will be there as he’ll have plenty of runners and my brother is coming over from Ireland, but we wouldn’t make a massive thing out of it really.

“Dad will be busy enough at home on the farm and we’ve all been to Aintree on National day before and agree you can see more on the telly anyway!”

The Grand National was an occasion which always seemed to light up Ginger McCain, though McCain-Mitchell admitted that most of his memories of his grandad were away from the racecourse.

He continued: “I was only nine or so before he passed, so I wouldn’t remember too much of him from a racing point of view, more of him just being a good grandad.

“I’ve gone back and read plenty of interviews and so on. He always had his tongue-in-cheek opinions, especially about the restructure of the race and how different it is.

"He was old school and would say it was a load of nonsense, but that would be more to get a bite out of some people. It’s a sense of humour and he certainly came alive when the race came around.

“I have good memories of racing up and down Donald’s yard on our push bikes, stealing the lads’ whips and whipping the back wheel.

“My brother would be the only one that didn’t have any interest in being a jockey - he was football mad. He’d still play along with me and my two cousins Abbie and Ella, who both rode. We’d be racing up and down the yard doing everyone’s head in, but we’d be pretending to ride a finish.”

Ginger later landed the prize for a fourth time in the twilight of his career with Amberleigh House in 2004, before his son Donald - Toby's uncle - trained Ballabriggs to victory in the race in 2011.

McCain-Mitchell is too young to clearly remember his grandfather’s fourth winner in the race with Amberleigh House in 2004, but vividly recalls Ballabriggs’ victory for his uncle Donald in 2011.

He said: “I remember Ballabriggs - I was at my friend Craig Norris’s house and we’d just got back from football and caught it on the telly in his living room and we were jumping up and down. I couldn’t believe it!

“Aintree is like a family obsession. We all support Liverpool and it’s just kind of the be all and end all. It was a massive box ticked when I rode over the Grand National fences in the Foxhunters’ a couple of times and I remember the most special part of that was seeing my Nana when going back to the washdown area.

“I’d finished fifth (on Tea Clipper in 2024) and I remember seeing her and that was quite emotional. It brought back feelings of grandad and so on.”

Now McCain-Mitchell is set to write his own chapter of Randox Grand National history when he rides the 10-year-old gelding Top Of The Bill for joint trainers and father and son combination Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies.

It is 53 years since Red Rum’s first victory in the race, but the impact and influence t the three-time winner still has on the McCain family is clear for all to see.

Indeed, McCain-Mitchell was born more than a quarter of a century after that success, but he is able to speak vividly about the horse that put his grandad on the map.

McCain-Mitchell and Top Of The Bill will have to do the unthinkable if they are to win the Grand National on Saturday and outrun their odds of 125-1, despite some excellent performances so far this season, including a gallant second in the Grand National Trial at Haydock Park in February.

2026-04-08T19:01:13Z