Photo caption: Chris Alford, pictured at Kilmore in May 2020, winning with the Brent Lilley-trained Storm Cloud. Both trainer and driver had four winners on the card. Credit: Claire Weston Photography.
Bolinda harness legend Chris Alford is in a league of his own as he nears closer to a historic 8000th win – a feat unlikely to be surpassed by anyone else.
At age 55, Alford is Australia’s most successful driver by a significant margin – well clear of second-placed Gavin Lang on 6303 and 68-year-old Chris Lewis, who passed 6000 in September last year.
He is now just two wins away, at the time of going to print yesterday.
Alford is as keen as ever to continue racing – even escaping unharmed from a bizarre incident at Maryborough last week where his sulky collapsed just 50 metres from what would have been another victory.
At this point in his career, Alford said the main source of motivation was ‘pretty much just winning races’.
“Whether it’s a group one race, or a race I did recently for a guy who’s been training for 20 years, it’s any winners,” he said.
“The money’s obviously different and all that, but the thrill you get out of winning just doesn’t compare to anything else I don’t think.”
Alford was first introduced to the racing industry by his father Barry, who was a trainer on a property near Monegeetta.
Dropping out of school at age 14, Alford has been involved in the industry ever since.
He drove his first winner in 1984 and has gone on to record career highlights such as the 1995 Christchurch Inter Dominion and at Perth’s Gloucester Park in 2015.
In total he has racked up almost 130 group one wins.
Alford said the racing had stayed largely the same over the course of his career and he was lucky to have had several special opportunities in the sulky.
“The horses are a lot faster now but the racing is pretty much still the same … there’s a lot more junior drivers that you have to race against now,” he said.
“I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve driven some great horses and driven for nearly every great trainer that’s been around in the last 40 years, so I wouldn’t change anything.”
Alford’s wife Alison is also involved in harness racing as a trainer, making each win feel a bit more special.
“It’s always a big thrill when you drive one that gets trained here, it makes it a bit more special because you put all the extra work in,” Alford said.
“If you just drive them for someone else, you turn up and you’re only part of it for 10 minutes from the time you go onto the track to the time you come off.
“This way you’re working everyday and helping out getting them to the races, so when they win it’s a bit of an extra thrill.”
Now racing five or six days a week, Alford said the milestone win could happen any day but remained humble in his celebration plans as he reflected on his career.
“I’m not really much into celebrating milestones, I’ll just sit back and go ‘oh yeah, finally got there’,” he said.
“I’m considered a pretty fair driver, I don’t just knock people over for fun like some of them and do anything to win a race.
“I go out there and be sure to be as fair and respectful to everyone else I race with as I can.
“Trots is a pretty amazing sport … you can keep going for a long time.
“I’ll just keep going while I think I can do it properly and if not, I’ll know when it’s time.”
