In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

Red Rum’s classic win in the 1977 Grand National is the stuff of sporting legend. Red himself became a national treasure, and his charismatic trainer – the redoubtable Ginger McCain – became a sporting hero. While the public adored Ginger, there were those who sniped that he was a one-horse trainer. All that changed 27 years later when, in a thrilling race, Ginger won his fourth National with Amberleigh House, equalling the record of Fred Rimmer. Once again Ginger had taken the sporting world by storm. In the 70s, the popularity of Red Rum and Ginger almost single-handedly saved the great race when there were plans afoot to turn the track into a housing estate.

Ginger himself is a remarkable individual – charming, forthright, not afraid to speak his mind and a hugely entertaining raconteur. This is his story, at times funny, sad, exciting and always captivating, told in his own inimitable style.

Donald “Ginger” McCain (21 September 1930 – 19 September 2011) was an English horse trainer who led the champion steeplechaser Red Rum to three Grand National victories in the 1970s. A former national serviceman in the Royal Air Force as a motorcycle dispatch rider, he was also a member of the RAF scrambling team.

McCain applied for a training permit in 1953 and began training horses in 1962, using small stables behind the showroom of his used-car store in Upper Aughton Road in his hometown of Southport. He bought a horse for 6,000 guineas that turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum who was trained on the sands and sea at Southport beach.

McCain trained the winner of the Grand National steeplechase four times, three times in the 1970s with Red Rum and a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House. His first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart.

Red Rum achieved an unmatched historic treble when he won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, and also came second in the two intervening years, 1975 and 1976. He also won the 1974 Scottish Grand National.

The 1973 Grand National was a duel of nine minutes two seconds between Red Rum and Crisp, with L’Escargot (a previous double Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and future 1975 Grand National winner) well beaten in third place. The winning time broke the course record that had stood for nearly 40 years and remained unbeaten until it was bettered by Mr Frisk in the 1990 Grand National immediately after a number of safety changes sped up the course for that year. In 2009 four Guardian journalists compiled a list of six Grand National moments and selected the 1973 Grand National battle as number one.

George Dockeray and Fred Rimell are the only other people to train four winners of the Grand National.

In his final Grand National in 2006, McCain entered three horses: Inca Trail, who ran well for a long way until running out of stamina two fences from home and finishing eighth; Ebony Light, who fell; and Amberleigh House, who was pulled up.

McCain retired after the 2006 National, handing over control of the stable to his son, Donald McCain Jr, who trained 2011 National winner Ballabriggs.

After watching the 2011 Grand National, where there were two equine fatalities, McCain expressed concern that the lowering of the fences in aid of safety was having the opposite impact through speeding up the race and increasing the risk of equine fatalities. Following further fatalities in the 2012 Grand National, a far cry from the lower equine fatalities of the 1950s and 1960s (apart from four equine fatalities at the 1954 Grand National and where there was an unusually small field of runners), these concerns are being increasingly openly expressed by other National Hunt and Grand National experts, and the wisdom of the approach to improving safety from the 1989 Grand National onwards is coming under close scrutiny.

Red Rum (3 May 1965 – 18 October 1995) was an Irish champion Thoroughbred steeplechaser. He achieved an unmatched historic treble when he won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, and also came second in the two intervening years, 1975 and 1976. The Grand National is a notoriously difficult race that has been described as “the ultimate test of a horse’s courage”. He was also renowned for his jumping ability, having not fallen in 100 races.