Australia’s greatest driver Chris Alford will be sidelined for at least the next six weeks.
Alford, 57, is recovering from back surgery last Friday for “wear and tear”.
“It’s something I’ve needed done for a while,” he said. “My back’s been annoying me for a couple of years now.
“It’s probably a combination of things, wear and tear and some falls. It’s hard to explain, but a couple of discs were jamming into the nerves.
“They did the surgery last Friday and I was back home on Sunday, but they told me I wouldn’t see the surgeon again for six weeks.
“I won’t be rushing things because I don’t want to go through it again.
“So, I guess the best case is to get the ok to start driving again when I got back to the surgeon in six weeks?”
Alford is by far Australasia’s winningest driver with 8380 wins in Australian alone and 141 of those at Group 1 level.
Now in his 42nd season of driving, Alford is still a major player in equal fifth place on the Victorian premiership behind runaway leader James Herbertson.
Alford boasts a record 15 Australian Drivers’ Premierships, the most recent in 2020.
He set an Australasian record with 456 wins in season 2017/18.
His biggest wins have come in the 1995 and 2015 Inter Dominion finals on Golden Reign and Lennytheshark respectively. He cites them as the best pacers he has driven.
Other stars Alford has driven include former champion mare Tailamade Lombo, star juvenile Poster Boy and millionaire trotting mare Queen Elida.
Alford has won three Hunter Cups (Paris Affair in 1999, Mont Denver Gold in 2003 and Sting Lika Bee in 2007), a Miracle Mile (Lennytheshark in 2016) and two Victoria Cup (Lennytheshark in 2016 and Max Delight in 2021).
