Barry Hills, a Towering Figure Among Trainers, Dies at 88

Barry Hills, who has died at the age of 88, was one of Britain's most successful, skilled and respected trainers, sending out winners in each of six decades from the 1960s onwards. He was trainer and friend to some of the sport's greatest patrons, most notably Robert Sangster. Son of a great horseman and father to four more, he built an empire and, moreover, he built it from scratch.

Hills was born in April 1937 in Worcestershire, where his father Bill, a former jump jockey, was head lad to the successful National Hunt trainer Tom Rimell at Kinnersley. The family subsequently moved for a time to Newmarket, where Bill Hills was head lad to George Colling in Hurworth House in the Fordham Road. Bill Hills's working life influenced his son's introduction to the game. Barry began his apprenticeship with Tom Rimell's son Fred, having his first race-ride on Golden Chance at Birmingham when aged only 13, but subsequently, because Rimell's stable was predominantly National Hunt, his indentures were transferred to Colling, who at the time was employed on a four-year contract as Lord Derby's private trainer in Stanley House.

Barry rode nine winners as an apprentice, including his first at Newmarket in July 1954 on Sudden Light, and looked after Lady Derby's 1955 Derby place-getter Acropolis (Donatello). Things changed, though, when he was called up for his National Service, which he spent, like a lot of racing people, in the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. On his discharge, he returned to Colling, taking up the post of travelling head lad.

Sadly, George Colling died in April 1959, aged only 55. His assistant John Oxley took over the license at Hurworth House, with Hills remaining an important factor in the stable's success. Wages in stables were not good in those days but Hills prospered. To call him a shrewd punter would be an understatement. Famously, he won enough money to start training when the Oxley-trained Frankincense won the Lincoln Handicap under Greville Starkey at 100/8 in the spring of 1968.

In the autumn of 1968, Hills, aged 31, moved his young family (he and his wife Maureen had three children, with John having been born in 1960 and the twins Michael and Richard in 1963) to Lambourn, where he bought for £15,000 the (then) 24-box South Bank, where Lester Piggott's father Keith had trained Ayala to win the Grand National in 1963. Almost immediately, the superb judgement of horses and astute racing brain which had earned him the capital to start training helped him to become a successful trainer.

Barry's small string in his first season (1969) revolved around 10 inexpensive two-year-olds. Fortunately, among his many skills was his outstanding ability to assess unbroken yearlings, his appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses so acute that his method was not to look at the catalogue until he had made his physical judgements. Several members of this initial batch of horses proved to be among the first of the many bargains which he would unearth over the years. His first winner, the two-year-old filly La Dolce Vita (Sallymount) who scored at Thirsk under Ernie Johnson in the third week of April, had cost less than £200. The three-year-old Gay Perch (High Perch) who won four races that year, had cost about £1,000.  By the end of the season he had trained the winners of 17 races.

Barry Hills's versatility as a trainer was evident right from the start. He was equally adept with two-year-old sprinters as with older stayers, as well as every type of horse in between; and with jumpers, as victories in the early '90s in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown and the Stayers'  Hurdle at Cheltenham with Robert Sangster's 1988 Cesarewitch winner Nomadic Way (Assert) would later remind us.

A very significant horse in the early years was the admirable gelding Hickleton (Exbury). In August 1969, his former boss ran Hickleton, then aged three, in a 12-furlong selling handicap at Newmarket. Barry knew the horse well and, understandably loath to be seen to be bidding for him himself, arranged for a friend to try to buy him afterwards, for 500 guineas. That was made to look a bargain when Hickleton won a much better race over two miles at Warwick a month later, beating the former Doncaster Cup winner Grey Of Falloden by four lengths. At four he won the Great Metropolitan Handicap over two and a quarter miles at Epsom, and the Brown Jack Stakes over two miles, six furlongs at Ascot. Later wins included the Queen Alexandra Stakes under Lester Piggott, the Prix Gladiateur, breaking the track record in a victory which was the middle leg of a remarkable autumn schedule which saw him contest three races in the final 22 days of the season whose aggregate distance was seven and a quarter miles. He was also placed in that year's Goodwood Cup.

At the same time as making such abundant use of Hickleton's limitless stamina, Barry was also showing himself to be a master with two-year-old sprinters. His star in 1970 was the filly Trasi Girl (Le Levanstell), who had been bought for 1,600 guineas as a foal. She won three consecutive five-furlong races before contesting the Prix Morny and the Cheveley Park Stakes. That season, Barry ended the year with 32 wins and a prize-money tally of just over £37,000.

In 1971 Hills had his first runner in the Derby: Meaden, a son of Meadow Court who joined him from Bruce Hobbs before, ridden by Willie Carson, finishing ninth of 21 behind Mill Reef at Epsom and later winning the Prix Saint-Gatien at Deauville. 

Our Mirage (Miralgo), in the first year of the European Pattern, became his trainer's first Group 1 winner by taking the Prix de la Salamandre at Longchamp. In the autumn Lord Porchester's club-footed Disguise (Klairon) won the Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury. And, most significantly, Henry Zeisel's Rheingold (Farberge II) made a winning debut at Newcastle and then finished second in both the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster and the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. 

The next year, only his fourth season, Hills finished in the top ten in the trainers' table for the first time, with 55 British winners and earnings of £52,628. He would be a permanent fixture in the top tier thereafter.

His British statistics were particularly creditable considering that his best horses continued to do much of their racing in the more richly-endowed contests in France. Rheingold, for instance, nearly won the greatest race of all, losing out by a short head to Roberto in the Derby, but collected most of the money he won (over £365,000) in France, notwithstanding that his British victories included the John Porter Stakes at Newbury and the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. In France his several fine efforts included two wins in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and, most famously, his triumphant swansong under Lester Piggott in the 1973 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, when he passed the post three lengths clear of Allez France.

That great victory must have impressed Allez France's owner Daniel Wildenstein because he subsequently approached Hills with an offer to move to France to succeed Albert Klimscha as his private trainer. He had no regrets about turning down the post, which then went to Angel Penna.

Barry Hills sent out his first British Classic winner in 1978 when Enstone Spark won the 1,000 Guineas at 33/1. He had already come agonisingly close. In 1974 Dibidale, owned by Nick Robinson, would surely have won the Oaks but for her saddle slipping when she jumped a path at the top of the hill, passing the post in third place with Willie Carson in effect riding bareback. She had already won the Cheshire Oaks and went on to win the Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. In 1977 Robert Sangster's Durtal (Lyphard), already winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket (at two) and the Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury, was hot favourite for the Oaks when she unseated Lester Piggott on the way to the start at Epsom and had to be withdrawn.

Contemporaries of these star fillies included the remarkable pair of Duboff (So Blessed) and Nagwa (Tower Walk) who between them accounted for 22 of the stable's 81 wins during 1975 after having been bought as yearlings for 9,400 guineas and 6,200 guineas respectively. Duboff, a three-year-old, contested nine races in 1975 and won them all, including the Extel Handicap at Goodwood and the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket. Nagwa, a two-year-old, ran 20 times that year and won 13, ridden to nine of those victories by the stable's apprentice Ray Cochrane.

Another notable filly around the same time was Mr Kalifa Sasi's Mofida (Right Tack) who was bought as a yearling for 4,000 guineas. She raced 15 times as a two-year-old in 1976 for five wins, including the Firth Of Clyde Stakes at Ayr, and eight minor placings. At three she won three of her 12 races and was subsequently sold to Robert Sangster and then to Prince Khalid Abdullah, for whom she became a stalwart of the Juddmonte broodmare band. This led to the start of a beautiful friendship as Barry Hills went on to train many good winners for Juddmonte over an extended period.

Of all the owners for whom Barry Hills trained (and there were many because having horses with him did not only increase the chances of success but also came with the bonus of the pleasure of his company) Robert Sangster stands supreme. As an owner/trainer combination they were made for each other, but they were much more than just that. Their instantly recognisable friendship, based on a shared love of the sport and of life itself, was one of the features of British racing in that golden age. This was never more apparent than at the Chester May Meeting, the principal fixture at Sangster's local course.  Every year Hills would send a strong team of horses to Chester, and seemingly every year a hatful of winners got the party started. The champagne always flowed, never more freely than after Sangster's well-backed 7/2 chance Arapahos (Gyr) won the Chester Cup under Steve Cauthen in 1980.

Less happy was the aftermath of Sangster's purchase for £10m in 1984 of the Manton estate, then empty but formerly the base of the great trainer George Todd. With the champion jumps trainer Michael Dickinson hired to train Sangster's string there, the expectation was that the winners would soon flow. That, unfortunately, was not the case.  In desperation, Sangster sent his friend an SOS, beseeching Hills to leave South Bank and take over at Manton, bringing his existing string with him. The upshot was that Hills sent out over 400 winners in his four seasons there. Sangster had true cause to reflect that a friend in need is a friend indeed.

For all his success, Barry Hills found the Derby a frustrating race, famously saddling the runner-up four times. Rheingold started that sequence in 1972 before three of Sangster's colts (Hawaiian Sound in 1978, ridden by Willie Shoemaker and beaten a short head by Shirley Heights; Glacial Storm, ridden by Michael Hills, in 1988; and Blue Stag in 1990) followed suit. One year after Enstone Spark's 1,000 Guineas triumph he won the colts' equivalent when Tap On Wood (Sallust) defeated Kris and Young Generation in the 2,000 Guineas shortly after the arrival of new stable jockey Steve Cauthen from the USA. Tap On Wood was every inch a Barry Hills horse: he had cost 12,500 guineas as a yearling and won seven of his 13 races as a two-year-old, headed by the National Stakes at the Curragh.

The highlight of Cauthen's final season with Hills (1984) was the Gold Cup victory at Royal Ascot of Robert Sangster's home-bred Gildoran. The tough stayer won the race again the following year, this time under the New Zealander Brent Thomson whom Sangster had persuaded to come over from Australia to ride for the stable. He was led up by pupil-assistant Peter Chapple-Hyam, who subsequently took over very successfully at Manton after his boss returned to Lambourn, his job there complete.

Gildoran's Gold Cup victories must have been particularly sweet for Hills as the horse was by Rheingold out of Durtal, but the most emotional race for the trainer was the 1994 St Leger. In a close finish, Moonax (Caerleon), trained for Sheikh Mohammed by Barry Hills and ridden by Pat Eddery, narrowly got the better of Broadway Flyer, trained by John Hills and ridden by his brother Michael. Although Barry was fiercely competitive, it was clear that on this occasion he might have preferred to see the result go against him, especially in retrospect when it became clear that that was to be the closest that John, a lovely man and top-class trainer, would come to Classic success prior to his tragically early death from cancer in 2014. John also trained that year's Oaks runner-up, Wind In Her Hair finishing second under Richard to Balanchine.

Just as Robert Sangster was a towering presence in the first half of Barry Hills's training career, so was Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum a major figure in later years. As had been the case with Sangster, the pair shared a love of the sport and a focus on playing the game well, with the alliance strengthened by the fact that Richard Hills was Shadwell's retained jockey for many years.

Shadwell horses to excel for Hills father and son included Haafhd (Alhaarth) who showed himself to be a master of the Rowley Mile in 2004 with wins in the Craven Stakes, 2,000 Guineas and Champion Stakes, that final triumph giving his trainer a third victory in Newmarket's greatest weight-for-age contest; and Ghanaati (Giant's Causeway), successful in 2009 in the 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes. Anyone unaware of Barry Hills's iron self-discipline and utter professionalism was put in the picture when the trainer, at the time in the depths of a gruelling battle against throat cancer, showed up at Royal Ascot, turned out as immaculately ever, to saddle his filly, greet her owner/breeder and, with his usual courtesy, field questions from the press.

Hills saddled his 3,000th winner when Chapter And Verse, owned in partnership by Jack Hanson and Sir Alex Ferguson and ridden by Michael, won at Pontefract in April 2009. Two years later he handed over the licence to Charles, one of two sons (the other being George who has forged a successful career in the bloodstock insurance business in the USA) from his marriage to Penny, alongside whom he made a loving and popular couple for half a century. After the handover it was very much a case of 'business as usual' as Barry remained a towering presence at Wetherdown House (which is now the family's base) as Charles has maintained the stable's record of high-level success.

For all Barry Hills's success with horses, he stood out as much for his human qualities. It wasn't just that he was a charismatic, charming man, but also that he set very high standards for himself and expected to see the same in others. Many successful trainers around the world have benefitted over the years from a thorough grounding in his stable; and many successful jockeys were apprenticed to him. He was popular with his staff, some of whom were with him from youth to retirement. All of this came from nothing other than his own skill and hard work. We're told that it is no longer possible to work one's way up the ladder to the extent that he did, but the truth is that they don't really make men of the calibre of Barry Hills any more. He will be mourned by many, and we offer our sincere condolences to Penny, Michael, Richard, Charles, George and their extended family.