Donald McCain: 'Equine flu was the shock of my life - I shut myself away'

Daylight has barely broken as first lot pulls out on a crisp morning at Donald McCain's Cheshire stable. As the 20 horses heading up to the warm-up paddock pass by in single file, the trainer shouts "morning" to a work-rider wrapped up against the cold. There is no reply. He tries again – still nothing. After a third attempt, each slightly louder than the previous, he gets a muffled response. "That's my daughter," he turns and says.

Forget about his many owners, with daughters Ella and Abbie among the pool of jockeys, wife Sian busy in the yard and mother Beryl and sister Jo stationed in the office, McCain has a tough job keeping all the women in his stable happy.

"Not only are there a lot of them but they all have strong opinions, so me and the dog have to disappear every now and then," he says. "It's always been a family of strong opinions, but doing this job with them is one of the biggest buzzes of the whole thing."