Even 50 years on, Barry Hills's Arc achievement with Rheingold is still a remarkable moment to savour

Owen Burrows does not have to look very far for inspiration or advice as he prepares Hukum for this Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Just up the B4000 and out on the Wantage road lives a fiercely bright 86-year-old with a sprightly mind that defies the years and who, 50 years ago, sent out Lambourn's first, and thus far only, winner of Europe's greatest Flat race.

Barry Hills was only four years into his training career when he saddled Rheingold that October day and the magnitude of that achievement is not diminished by the years. Hills is the archetypal self-made man, the former apprentice who first rode in a race at the age of 13 at Birmingham against greats of the era including Sir Gordon Richards; a travelling head lad who won enough in shrewd punting – most famously on Frankincense in the 1968 Lincoln – to set up on his own at South Bank stables.

The betting continued once Hills was up and running and the only occasions he backed Rheingold was when the cheaply bought colt made his debut at Newcastle (on at 7-1, SP 13-8) and ten days before the Arc when he realised the stout stayer was in the form of his life.