What separates McCain from a competent journeyman is his record at the very top level. Five Class 1 victories — the elite tier of British racing — in just four years is genuinely impressive. Those wins have come at Haydock Park, Doncaster, and twice at Aintree, including as recently as December 2025. Aintree is one of the most famous racecourses in the world, home of the Grand National, and winning there at the highest level once is something many trainers never manage. McCain has done it twice in little over a year.
His most reliable working relationship is with jockey Theo Gillard, who has partnered his horses to 21 wins from 205 rides together — roughly 1 in every 10, which mirrors the yard's overall win rate and suggests a smooth, well-drilled partnership rather than one carried by the odd freak result. More eye-catching, though, is his association with a horse called Count Of Vendome, a pairing that has produced 4 wins from just 7 races together. That is winning more than half the time, which in professional horse racing is an extraordinary ratio and speaks to a trainer who clearly knows exactly what suits that particular horse.
Perhaps most encouragingly, McCain appears to be hitting a rich vein of form right now. Over the last two weeks his runners have won 4 from 20 — a 20% win rate, nearly double his season average of 11%. In training, that kind of short-term spike often means the horses in the yard are healthy, happy, and primed. Punters and racing insiders pay close attention to these windows of form, and right now McCain's name is one worth watching. Four years in, the trajectory is pointing firmly upward.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangor-on-Dee | 82 | 14 | 17.1% |
| Carlisle | 50 | 0 | 0% |
| Sedgefield | 37 | 4 | 10.8% |
| Haydock Park | 35 | 5 | 14.3% |
| Kelso | 32 | 2 | 6.2% |
| Catterick Bridge | 28 | 5 | 17.9% |
| Musselburgh | 24 | 5 | 20.8% |
| Uttoxeter | 24 | 2 | 8.3% |
| Wetherby | 22 | 1 | 4.5% |
| Doncaster | 21 | 3 | 14.3% |
| Newcastle | 16 | 1 | 6.2% |
| Worcester | 14 | 1 | 7.1% |
| Chester | 11 | 2 | 18.2% |
| Aintree | 11 | 2 | 18.2% |
| Ayr | 10 | 1 | 10% |
| Market Rasen | 9 | 0 | 0% |
| Stratford-on-Avon | 8 | 2 | 25% |
| Southwell | 8 | 1 | 12.5% |
| Cartmel | 8 | 1 | 12.5% |
| Huntingdon | 8 | 0 | 0% |
| Ludlow | 5 | 1 | 20% |
| Cheltenham | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| Perth | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| Chepstow | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Warwick | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Kempton Park | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Ripon | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Hexham | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Leicester | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Sandown Park | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Hamilton Park | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Exeter | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Fakenham | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| hereford | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Newmarket | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Ascot | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Newbury | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| York | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Galway | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Thirsk | 1 | 0 | 0% |