Liverpool finish third again as £65,000 horse owned by five players including Henderson just misses out on debut
LIVERPOOL finished third again - after the £65,000 racehorse owned by five players made his debut.
Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have all chipped in to buy a racehorse, trained by former Red hero Michael Owen.
Former Anfield player 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 made his debut in the 1.25pm contest over five furlongs at Leicester today.
Jockey Richard Kingscote was the man tasked with delivering the Liverpool stars a winner after a trophyless season.
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."
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.
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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.