Barry Hills: From humble beginnings to Classic glory and much more

Rhyl Journal

6 hours ago

Starting from humble beginnings and with next to nothing, Hills climbed to the top of the training tree thanks to an eye for a horse and a shrewd angle for a bet.
But the greatest achievement of Barrington William Hills was undoubtedly the racing dynasty he created with his five sons.
He had three children with first wife, Maureen. Twins Michael and Richard were two of the best jockeys of their generation, while eldest son John was a successful trainer until his untimely death in 2014.
Charlie is one of the best young trainers in the business having already won a host of big races since taking over from his father.
His other son, George, has made a career in bloodstock, mainly in the United States, while Richard Hills' son, Patrick, rode, too. He is also survived by his second wife and George and Charlie's mother, Penny.
Born in Worcester in 1937, racing was his life. The son of a head lad, Hills became an apprentice in 1952 at the age of 15 before weight was an issue and gave up the saddle seven years later to be head lad himself to trainer George Colling and shortly afterwards his successor John Oxley.
It has gone down in racing folklore how Hills won the funds to set up his own stable after collecting £60,000 from his gamble on Frankincense to win the Lincoln at Doncaster in 1968.
'These days, you don't find a decent horse advertised at 66-1 three or four months before a race,' he told the Daily Mail.
'You don't come across chances like that every day. It never crossed my mind that he wouldn't win.
That fearless punt was the beginning of many successful tilts at the ring that had bookmakers running for cover.
Hills soon showed he was much more than merely a trainer of handicappers by saddling Rheingold to win Europe's premier middle-distance race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, in 1973.
Rheingold had gone agonisingly close to winning the Derby the previous year, the first of four frustrating second places in the Epsom showpiece.
Hills also endured bad luck in the Oaks particularly with Dibidale, whose saddle slipped in 1974 when looking the winner, but she did gain compensation in the Irish Oaks.
However, Hills did chalk up five British Classics and the Irish Derby with very few big races eluding the master trainer in a career spanning 63 years, man and boy.
One of those Classic wins was with the Sheikh Mohammed-trained Moonax in the 1994 St Leger at Doncaster.
The late, great Pat Eddery was the man in the saddle that day and said on the day Hills retired from the training ranks: 'You used to come back in after a hard day's work and you'd have a beautiful breakfast. He was a gentleman.
'He's got guys working for him who've been there 25 years, which says all you need to know about what he's like to work for.'
Hills instinctively knew how to prepare a horse for the track so was rarely wrong when the money was down.
Not surprisingly, he loved taking the bookmakers to the cleaners, sometimes with equally-shrewd associates that included Jack Ramsden and Robert Sangster.
The latter was one of his most successful owners, along with the likes of Khalid Abdullah and Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
The Hills' list of memorable horses is a long one. Who could forget the popular grey stayer Further Flight, the winner of five successive Jockey Club Cups?
His passion for betting never went away. He told The Independent in 2004: 'I still bet, yes. Not often, but occasionally. Further Flight in the (1990) Ebor would be the last really big win I had. It's about the only thing left that's tax free.'
A forthright character when he wanted to be, owner Dick Bonnycastle named 1991 Derby runner Mr Combustible after him.
Hawaiian Sound, Royal Applause, Cormorant Wood, Handsome Sailor and Cheltenham Festival winner Nomadic Way are just a handful of other household names to have been in his care.
While enjoying success year after year after year, he suffered with his health and underwent an operation for throat cancer.
In 2011, after 42 years at the helm, he thought it was time to hand over the reins at Faringdon Place to Charlie.
But the death of John in the summer of 2014 caused him to step into the breach at his son's yard in Lambourn.
Though he stressed that it was only a temporary measure, he only let go at the end of 2015 when he had settled in the now hugely-successful Owen Burrows as the new incumbent.
It was typical of Hills not to leave a stone unturned. He leaves a legacy that takes some beating.