Records tumble amid historic season

More records and milestones appear in the path of Victoria's dynamic duo, with Chris Alford set to become the first Australian driver to notch 400 wins in a season and Emma Stewart zeroing in on a record of her own.

Having eclipsed Daryl Douglas' 388 wins last week to set a new mark, Alford has continued on his winning ways and looks likely to cross the 400 barier at Ballarat tomorrow night.The Bolinda reinsman steered On Fast Forward to victory for Brent Lilley today at Maryborough, which was the first taste in the build up to the August 3 and 5 Redwood Carnival.

Alford sits on 398 wins for the season prior to racing at Bray Raceway tomorrow night, when he has two favourites among six drives, those being Stewart's first starter Swimsuit Edition and brilliant four-year-old The Storm Inside.

Victories to those pacers in races three and four would also draw Stewart closer to the record for most wins in a season by an Australian trainer.

Stewart has amassed 265 wins, breaking the stable's previous mark (216 set in 2016-17) and also seeing her notch the most training wins in a season by a Victorian on record, eclipsing Andy Gath's 240 in 2002-03.

That has Stewart within eyesight of Bill Dixon's record for most wins in a season by an Australian trainer, which stands at 299 set in 2010-11. Remarkably, Dixon and his son, Grant, fill the top 10 places on that list with the exception of Stewart's current season.

Grant is also compiling a historic season, having produced 273 wins in 2017-18, eight more than Stewart and 26 shy of his dad's record with a little over a month to go.

Making Stewart and training parter Clayton Tonkin's achievements all the more stunning is that she's achieved those 265 wins from only 667 starts, a 39.7% winning strike rate. By comparison, Grant Dixon has this season had 1793 starters for his 273 wins and Bill Dixon's all-time record was created from 1436 starts.

With the TAB Breeders Crown still on the horizon for Stewart in the 2017-18 season and her slew of two, three and four-year-old contenders the window is open for her to build on a historic season with Alford. 

Michael Howard
Trots Media