He was three times British champion trainer and a winner of the English Greyhound Derby.

[2] After taking out a private trainers licence his first major success came in 1961, when a greyhound called Long Story won the Gold Collar.

In 1963 he won the Oaks for the first time with Cranog Bet and the bitch repeated the feat the following year before Rees joined Wimbledon Stadium from Clapton Stadium as a contracted trainer.

Shady Parachute was an overwhelming favourite but failed to secure the title,[6] but did win the 1968 Oaks.

[6][7] In 1978, he retired and transferred the Burhill kennels in Walton-on-Thames to his son Philip Rees Jr.[8] His grandson Richard Rees became a third generation trainer at the Burhill Kennels in 2008.