John Hills trains 55 horses in Lambourn and has the use of some of the best grass and polytrack facilities in England. Since the first winner in April 1987 the stable has enjoyed continued success and among the 550 or so winners, there have been Group and Listed victories in eight different countries. In 2006 Wood Hall Stud’s Clinet won twice at the Dubai Racing Carnival and Dark Islander took the Oak Tree Derby Group 2 at Santa Anita in Los Angeles, CA.

The Croft houses racehorses for leading owners and partnerships alike, everyone is welcome and looked after in style by John, Fiona and the team. Please browse through the to find out more about those who work and train at The Croft.

John W. Hills, a potted history…

Riding
Raised in a racing environment, John had his first success aged 16 in the 1976 Newmarket Town Plate, staged over 3 3/4 miles. His mount, Matinale, was probably a bit of a good thing as she went on to win the 1977 Ascot Stakes at the Royal Meeting, but this didn’t matter to JWH who was well and truly hooked.

Two years later and with a couple more amateur wins under his belt John left school and took his first job in racing with Edward O’Grady at Killeens in Tipperary. The stable had just lost the gifted Golden Signet, but there was plenty of talent around including Jack Of Trumps, So, Mount Rivers, Flame Gun and Drumlargon.

John had just one ride for Edward, Happy Crow at Thurles, but unfortunately the old mare and he had a disagreement over the first hurdle in the straight and demolished the left wing. After a couple of calls from HQ the J Hills jumping career was put on hold!

After Cheltenham John went to Harry Thomson-Jones as Pupil Assistant arriving at Green Lodge at the same time as Alec Stewart who was to be Assistant. It was an interesting time in Newmarket and coincided with the first venture into racing of the Maktoum family. John rode a lot of winners for Tom including the Kilkerran Cup on the great John Cherry, but never go to ride Tingle Creek who head lad Fred Flippance, one of the best, never let anyone else near (trainer Don DCantillon was the exception).

During John’s three seasons in Newmarket he won The Moet and Chandon at Epsom on Lumen for Josh Gifford and Peter Hopkins, also completing a notable double winning the Richmond Brissac Trophy at Goodwood and Angers in the same year, tieing for the amateur championship with Ray Hutchinson in 1980. At the end of this time brother Richard had started as apprentice and Michael had gone to Jeremy Hindley and it was time to let them get on with the riding, John had ridden 21 winners.

Training
Next came California with John Gosden at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, John was doing particularly well with his European horses and taking Charlie Whittingham on at his own game. During this time these horses included Bates Motel, Star Pastures, Millingdale Lillie and Battlewind. A memorable day was bing sent to Las Vegas with pocket loads of cash to place on an unknown horse called Crews Hill who was running at Bay Meadows. He had won the previous year’s Steward’s Cup, and they didn’t see which way he went!

Before finally returning to England, John spent a season in South Australia with the legendary Colin Hayes during which time the stable had 245 winners! Based at Lindsay Park near Angaston, the stables were right in the middle of wine producing Barossa Valley. At that time Colin’s son Peter was in overall charge and David, who has been so successful in Hong Kong, was a pupil. Also on the team were Brent Thomson who was to come to England and Tony McEvoy who now holds the reins at Lindsay Park and is Kerrin’s uncle.

During these years John had been able to attend most of the major sales with his father and significantly the Robert Sangester selection team, this time spent walking around the yearlings with the likes of the legendary
P P Hogan and Demmy O’Bryne from Keenland to Doncaster have proven invaluable over the years. Today John teams up with James Delahooke (Rainbow Quest, Dancing Brave) to select his yearlings.

Then it was back to South Bank in Lambourn to take up the post as assistant to father Barry. At the time Robert Sangster had a bet with him that the relationship might not last long, both being a bit stubborn, but during the next three-and-a-half years, they never had a cross word. There were plenty of good horses too, during this time Gildoran won consecutive Ascot Gold Cups, Sure Blade won the St James’s Palace Stakes and QEII, Cormorant Wood took the Sun Chariot before going on the following year to win the Benson and Hedges and the Champion Stakes, Desirable also took the Cheveley Park. This fily could not follow up at three, finishing 3rd in the 1,000 Guineas, but her daughter Shadayid put things straight in 1991 by winning the fillies’ classic.

The 1996 season marked the re-opening of the great Manton Estate as a state-of-the-art training establishment with Michael Dickinson at the helm. Unfortunately for both Robert and Michael it was not an immediate success and that autumn Robert approached John’s father Barry to see if he would take over. On certain conditions this was agreed and John got his chance to being his own career by leasing South Bank.