Harness hero Chris Alford creates history with 8000th winner

A daring and brilliant front-running drive gave Chris Alford one of the greatest milestones in Australian harness racing history at Ballarat on Wednesday night.

Alford's win aboard Im Wesley in the fifth race made him the first driver in this part of the world to reach 8000 career wins.

For context, the next highest is 6303 wins by the late, great Gavin Lang and the most wins by a jockey in Australia is Robert Thompson's 4441.

"Gee, the last few wins seem to have taken forever," Alford laughed. "It's been a big countdown.

"It's a huge thrill to get there, but I'm sort of glad it's over so I can get back to normality and just doing my thing now."

In a career spanning almost 40 years, the 55-year-old Alford boasts 14 Australian driving premierships and a staggering 138 Group 1 victories.

He holds the record for wins in a single season with an almost unthinkable 456 in season 2017/18.

Alford has won just about every big race in Australia, many of them multiple times, including the Inter Dominion pacing when he first won aboard Golden Reign in Christchurch in 1995. He waited 20 years to do it again on Lennytheshark in Perth in 2015.

"It's fitting they're my two (Inter Dominion) wins … I can't split them for the best pacer I've driven," Alford said.

Alford, who won his first race aboard Spring Vance at Wangaratta on October 2, 1984, already has his sights set on 9000 wins.

"I'm as competitive as ever, still love getting out there every time I can and I think I'm driving as well as ever," he said. "Who knows if I'll reach 9000, but I'll even dream of 10,000."