FIVE Liverpool stars will watch their racehorse make his debut at Leicester on Tuesday – after having it in training at Michael Owen’s stables.
Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have all chipped in to buy the £65,000 runner.
Former Anfield hero and current Brighton star Adam Lallana completes the group of six who own Mr McCann.
The two-year-old is named after Liverpool’s press officer Matt McCann.
Trained at Owen’s Manor House Stables by Tom Dascombe, the horse makes his debut in the 1.25pm contest over five furlongs at Leicester tomorrow.
Jockey Richard Kingscote is the man tasked with delivering the Liverpool stars a winner after a trophyless season.
He will be easy to spot as his silks are predominantly red, just like the Liverpool home shirt.
Liverpool legend Owen told the Racing Post a couple of the boys had already been to his stables to check up on the horse’s development.
Owen, who recently celebrated his own winner with the brilliantly-named Ever Given and owns another runner with Man Utd legend Sir Alex Ferguson, said: “It’s great a few of the lads have decided to get involved in racing.
“We’ve been keeping them regularly updated on their horse’s progress and a couple of them have been down to Manor House Stables to meet him and watch him on the gallops.”
The five current Liverpool stars plus former Red Lallana will all cheer on their horse at Leicester on Tuesday
Top trainer Dascombe, whose horses have earned more than £3.3million over the past five seasons, added: “He’s a £65,000 breeze-up horse who we liked at the sales and he has done nothing wrong since he’s been here.
“I’m sure that like a lot of our horses he’ll improve for the run, and I’ll be very disappointed if his owners don’t have some fun with him.
“We had a bit of a laugh on Saturday as we galloped Mr McCann upsides Sir Alex Ferguson’s two-year-old Red Power, so we had Liverpool versus Manchester United.
“I’m not going to say which side won!”
Henderson revealed last year how his daughters had been inspired to take up horse riding by Hollie Doyle.
The superstar jockey finished third in last year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year and was the only female on the shortlist.
Meanwhile, Milner had success at March’s Cheltenham Festival with a horse called Mrs Milner.
He backed the 12-1 winner of the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle, then revealed his wife had demanded all the winnings.
The Liverpool lads become the latest in a long line of footballers to have owned racehorses – but hopefully they are more successful than Wayne Rooney was.
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