Top trainer Donald McCain has described Carlisle Racecourse as the best track in the country.

The 52-year-old, speaking about his passion for the northern racing scene, was full of praise for the Durdar track.

McCain, speaking to the Jockey Club, said: “I love sending my novices to Carlisle as it’s the best track in the country and any trainer would send their chasers there.

“You meet every fence uphill, which is always the nicest way to jump a fence, so it’s a good experience. It doesn’t happen too quickly for them and they’re not getting rushed off their feet, so it’s always a good experience.”

McCain, son of Ginger McCain – trainer of the legendary Red Rum – says he makes no apologies for often focusing on the northern scene.

The Cheshire-based trainer added: “I’m a northern trainer, I’ve got a northern stable jockey and I like running horses in the north of England.

“We get a bit of stick through the season for not coming down south a bit more than we do, but if people looked a bit closer we’re often running for better money so it’s not often as black and white as that.

“You can run at places like Newbury, but often you can be running for more money at Kelso and places like that – it’s all relative.

“A lot of the horses that we tend to buy are more suited to northern racing and that’s because a lot of my owners want horses running in the north as they’re further north than me.

“We’re right in the middle of the country, though, and we’ll go anywhere. The other day I had two winners in a day, one was at Plumpton and one was at Perth, so we will go anywhere.”

McCain currently sits second behind Fergal O’Brien in the jump trainers’ championship.

He added: “We’ve made a good start to this season and I don’t believe we’ve run as many this summer as before because we didn’t think we had as big a team for the summer.

“We never have any grand plan to take the world by storm or anything like that, but if we can keep the horses healthy and ticking over you’re going to keep training winners.”