Champion reinsman Chris Alford left the country on a winning note after steering Queen Elida to an all the way victory in the Group 2 Australasian Trotting Championship at Melton on Satrurday night.
The Brent Lilley trained Queen Elida ($1.70) stepped straight to the lead from the tapes and Alford was only forced to allow the mare more rein over the final 200 metres of the race to score from the Chris Lang/Sonia Mahar trained stablemates Ollivici and Bullion Harry.
Alford admitted he was happy with the way the standing start panned out for the daughter of Love You.
“She stepped away quite well and I wasn’t sad to see the pole horse Ollivici dwell a little bit at the start and us get in front of him,” Alford said.
“It was one of those races where they were all in Indian File for a while and she wasn’t used to being in front as she hasn’t led all that often and she was just gawking around,” he said.
Alford said the race only got serious in the home straight.
“We didn’t really get going even at the 400,” he said. “I thought that Chris (Lang) was struggling but then he gave a big roar at the top of the straight and his horse just took off and I reckon we would have run the last furlong in about 12 and a half seconds we were going that quick.”
Alford departs Australia tomorrow to join forces with Queen Elida’s stablemate Aldebaran Zeus who will contest the $US1 million MGM Yonkers International Trot in New York on September 9.
Alford spoke to TrotsVision’s Shannon O’Sullivan about the upcoming trip.
