Several Liverpool FC stars were celebrating victory on Merseyside - but it was on the racecourse rather than the football pitch.
Mr McCann - a two-year-old colt trained by Tom Dascombe and named after Liverpool FC press officer Matt McCann - is owned by the AJT Group which features Reds stars Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as well former Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana. And he grabbed a second success at Haydock Park on Thursday.
Under Jane Elliott, the son of Kodiac - who is housed at ex-Red Michael Owen's Manor House Stables in Cheshire - landed a second victory on his third career start when taking the British EBF Novice Stakes at odds of 22-1.
After jumping out smartly from the stalls the juvenile led almost from start to finish in the six-furlong contest, before staying on powerfully to grab a two-and-three-quarter-length success over 6-4 favourite Triple Time.
Having finished third on his debut at Leicester at the start of June, Mr McCann got off the mark on his second start, when scoring at Lingfield two weeks ago.
Now he has made it two wins from three starts to provide a boost for his owners - particularly Reds skipper Henderson, who is bidding for more glory with England as they face Ukraine in Rome on Saturday evening in the Euro 2020 quarter-final clash.
Trainer Dascombe said; "He was very impressive. I thought he got a great ride from Jane, she steadied it up and then kicked on. He's possibly beaten some nice horses, but only time will tell," said Dascombe.
"I was very happy with the performance today - the only surprise was the price, but it is very hard to give those 6lb penalties away to horses who have already had a run.
"That trip looked fine. We ran him over five on debut as he came from the breeze ups, so we needed to take the fizz out of him - but he nearly won that day even and he's not far off being unbeaten.
"We'll have to go up in grade now, but as he came from the breezes he's basically run four times. We could look at the Superlative Stakes, but that could be being greedy. We might just sit on him for a bit longer and find something else. He deserves a crack at a nice race."
Of buying a horse for leading footballers, he added: "We went to the sales to buy them something that would be ready to run, we didn't want them to have to wait a year to run. Eddie O'Leary (vendor, Lynn Lodge Stud) was very positive about the horse and told us we wouldn't be disappointed."
With Henderson on international duty and the rest of the Liverpool players off on holidays, former Liverpool striker Owen, who owns Dascombe's yard, picked up the trophy.
Owen told Racing TV: "I think that was the most embarrassing moment of my life - but I promised the lads this morning I'd do the 'Hendo Shuffle' if he won.
"Six of the lads have just got into ownership. Ed Sackville and Tom picked a real good one in terms of what they needed. They are new into the game so they wanted an early, sharp, two-year-old but he looks more than that now - he was impressive giving a penalty away.
"I never backed him myself but I'm sure the lads did, they did last time and it's a perfect start to ownership for them. Hopefully they get the bug and they are in it for a long time."
Elsewhere at Haydock father and son training team John and Thady Gosden landed a double with Side Shot (5-1) in the Watch On RacingTV Handicap and Albert Camus (13-2) in the racingtv.com Handicap. Both horses were ridden by Robert Havlin.
And James Fanshawe's Flower Of Scotland (10-3) won the finale on the first day of three days action at the Merseyside track scoring by a nose - under PJ McDonald - from 3-1 favourite Steel An Icon.
Haydock's main and final day of three days action is on Saturday,
There were nine declared for the Group Two bet365 Lancashire Oaks headed by Sir Mark Prescott's Alphinista, who is the sponsors' 9-4 favourite.
Other entries include recent Pinnacle Stakes winner La Lune and Mark Johnston's Cheshire Oaks heroine Dubai Fountain, who as she was at Chester will be ridden by Scouser and Liverpool FC fan Franny Norton.
There are 19 entries left in for the feature handicap, the bet 365 Old Newton Cup.
Prescott's lightly-raced Longsider is the 7-1 favourite with Paddy Power and BetVictor, while Roger Varian's hat-trick-seeking Valyrian Steel is a best-priced 9-1 with the same bookmakers.
There are several horses vyring for favouritism including the Gosdens' Grand Bazaar and the Johnston-trained Zabeel Champion - who is 17-2 with BetVictor following his third-placed finish at Royal Ascot in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes last month.
