Stat attack: Familiar names at top in region-based racing

The more things change the more they stay the same at the head of affairs in Victorian harness racing, with Greg Sugars and Chris Alford still kings amid region-based racing while Emma Stewart’s super Saturday has provided the leaderboard breathing space she’s accustomed too.

These are among the pictures taking shape after 39 days of region-based racing, which kicked off on April 2 to protect participants, track staff and the industry from threats of the pandemic.

Since then Sugars has amassed 29 wins from 86 Inner West starts and Alford 25 wins from 75 starts in the East, with both trekking at a 33 per cent win ratio. Of drivers with five or more steers since April 2 Sugars (33.7%) and Alford (33.3%) sit one and two respectively for win ratio.

Elsewhere, Josh Aiken (16 wins from 56 starts) heads the North East, Dwayne Locke (16 wins from 50 starts) the North West, Alex Ashwood (15 wins from 56 starts) the Central and Jackie Barker (6 wins from 36 starts) the West.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REGION-BASED RACING STATS

In the training ranks, Stewart’s seven winners on Saturday boosted her tally to 29 from 68 starts (42.6%), which has her clear of Central’s Glenn Douglas (13 wins from 73 starts) and East pair Brent Lilley (13 from 72) and David Miles (13 from 41).

Other region leaders are the West’s Marg Lee (8 wins from 27), North East’s David Aiken (8 from 34) and North West trio Reece Moore (6 from 30), Luke Watson (6 from 32) and Boris Devcic (6 from 32). Notably, fellow North West trainer Geoff Lucas has the best strike ratio in the state of those with more than five starts, having won five of his nine races to date including a double on Friday.

That has him narrowly ahead of the East’s Gary and Deb Quinlan (7 wins from 14 starts) and North East pair David Moran and Amanda Turnbull (each with 5 from 11).

Of the horses, Jilliby Sylvester’s been the star thus far, winning all four of his starts for trainer Marg Lee since his career debut on April 7. Despite having the most racing, Inner West is the only region yet to have produced a horse with three wins. Elsewhere Bernie Winkle and Blast Away (North West), Troubador (West), Lola Devereux, Gobsmacked and Betternbetter (Central), and the East’s Storm Cloud have each managed a treble.

And for a final teasing of the numbers, yesterday’s Stawell meeting, which isn’t yet included in the statistics, was the West’s seventh since April 2, drawing it equal with the North West (Mildura) for meetings held.

The East (Kilmore/Cranbourne), North East (Shepparton) and Central (Bendigo) have each had 10 meetings as of Saturday night, while the Inner West (Ballarat and Melton) has had 16.

The meeting numbers reflect the horse, trainer and driver populations of each area. Since April 2, the following number have participated: