After winning several races in the United States, he was relocated to Britain, where he won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in 1966.
The winner of California Breeders' Champion Stakes at age two, in his three-year-old campaign Hill Rise scored the widest margin of victory in the fastest Santa Anita Derby ever run and won 8 straight starts going into the 1964 Kentucky Derby.
For the Derby, trainer Horatio Luro, who had trained Decidedly, offered Bill Shoemaker the chance to ride his colt Northern Dancer.
However, the future Hall of Fame jockey chose to ride the favored Hill Rise instead and wound up 2nd in the Derby and 3rd in the Preakness Stakes to Northern Dancer.
His victory made him the first California-bred horse to win a major stakes in the United Kingdom since 1908.