Reinsman Chris Alford created his own piece of harness racing history on the weekend, driving the winner of the Traralgon Pacing Cup for the sixth time.
Alford eclipsed the previous record for winning drives in the event of five held by Ted Demmler, when Sahara Tiger won the feature race at Warragul on Sunday afternoon.
Sahara Tiger overcame the inside second row draw of the mobile to win Sunday’s race, with Alford getting the horse off the inside and into clear running, before sweeping past the field at the 600-metre mark and going on to record an easy win.
A three-year-old taking on older horses, Sahara Tiger became the first horse of his age to win the Traralgon Pacing Cup since Kotare Knight in 1979.
Sahara Tiger is trained by Gary and Debbie Quinlan at Drouin West, giving the stable their third win in the race, having won with Pinball and Sharazar when the event was staged at Traralgon.
Co-feature race on Sunday was the $10,000 Ken Miller Memorial Pace, won by Diamond Cullen for trainer Jodi Quinlan and driver Craig Demmler.
A good crowd attended Sunday’s meeting in fine conditions. Warragul Harness Racing Club has another Sunday meeting scheduled for July 14.
