Barry Hills

Legendary BBA Ireland bloodstock agent Adrian Nicoll relives some of his greatest days in the business They say that stories lived are better than stories told. And by God, Adrian Nicoll has lived through his share of good times. The former BBA Ireland bloodstock agent has purchased his share of Group 1 winners, too. Think Dark Angel, Kooyonga, Alexander Goldrun, Serenade Rose and more. He also played a part in the shuttling of the stallions to Australia which was the brainchild of his close friend John Magnier. More recently, he...

A good many years ago now, aged about 20, I was lucky enough to live with the late John Hills in Davy Cormack's Ardagh House Hotel in Killenaule during his time in Edward O'Grady's. I can vividly remember the visits of his father Barry which invariably involved dinner in Bryan Murphy's in Adare with a host of other larger than life characters like Pat Hogan, Greville Starkey, Brian Taylor and Frank Barry. It was a privilege for me as a young man to spend time in Barry's company, always great...

A memorial service for Barry Hills, one of Britain's most successful, skilled and respected trainers, who died last week at the age of 88, will be held at St Michael and All Angels Church in Lambourn on Tuesday, July 8. The service will begin at 11am, with additional parking available on Crowle Road, opposite Windsor House Stables.

On the day that Kevin Prendergast was remembered at the Curragh in the naming of the International Stakes, and a day after Peter Easterby was laid to rest, another great of the training ranks was lost with the passing of Barry Hills. Then came the news from America that D Wayne Lukas had too departed. To read the tributes paid to these men, who did so much to enrich the colour of this storied sport, is something of a treat in itself - their parting gift, if you like -...

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...

When he came to Europe, and rode them all to sleep, everyone said that Steve Cauthen had a clock in his head. If a Swiss watchmaker wanted to check his work, he could just ask Cauthen to go five-eighths in a minute flat. But all that precision seemingly ran askew when it came to counting his years, each of which might have compressed a decade. As Laz Barrera said, when the press asked him about keeping "The Kid" on his Derby horse: "Stevie Cauthen doesn't come from this planet. He's...

It was fitting that Dark Angel's 100th stakes winner should have come in the Dick Hern S. at Haydock, a milestone which the ultra-reliable Yeomanstown Stud-based stallion reached thanks to the victory of the St. Albans Bloodstock home-bred filly Heredia (GB). Dick Hern, who sent out 16 British Classic winners including three winners of the Derby as well as his best horse Brigadier Gerard (GB), would have thoroughly approved of Dark Angel. Hern was an archetypal 'old-school' trainer who excelled with every type of horse. Late in his career he...

Sarayir (Mr. Prospector), a daughter of champion Height of Fashion {Fr}) (Bustino {GB}) and the dam of 2009 G1 1000 Guineas heroine Ghanaati (Giant's Causeway), has passed away, Sheikha Hissa Hamdan tweeted Friday. She was 29 years old. A half-sister to the likes of Nashwan, Unfuwain, Alwasmi, Mukddam and Nayef, Sarayir won her maiden and the Listed Oh So Sharp S. at two for Major Dick Hern and added a third career success as a 3-year-old in 1997. The first of her produce to make an impact at the races...

In Part I of a two-part series on the 40th anniversary weekend of Known Fact's 2000 Guineas win, John Berry takes us through the first decade of Prince Khalid Abdullah's racing and breeding dynasty. Under normal circumstances, the European Classic year would be springing into life this weekend with Newmarket staging the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 1000 Guineas. Forty years ago the Guineas meeting looked a particularly special one, the main trials having set the stage perfectly. Subsequent Irish Derby hero Tyrnavos (GB) (Blakeney {GB}) had beaten Chesham S....