Photo | PACEPIX
This Friday night at Gloucester Park we have the running of The Lewis to honour one of our greats.
Chris Lewis was sixteen years old when he had his first race drive in South Australia and won with Classic Heir in an era when there were no concessions given to newcomers.
Chris won two Inter Dominions with the success of Carclew in 1976 and Village Kid in 1986. He had great success through the Inter Dominion with 14 wins, winning 12 heats and the two finals.
The first of more than 2000 Perth winners came in June 1976 behind Burgundy and with a career total in excess of 6000 winners, including two in Moscow and one in the USA, Lewis is one of only a few Australian drivers to have passed this milestone.
Chris had won eight Perth Driver’s Premierships and an unprecedented 27 successive Top Five finishes on the Perth Premiership between the 1983/84 and 2009/10 seasons.
He has won a total of 14 State Drivers Premierships surpassing the previous record of 13 shared by Fred R Kersley (WA), Ross Sugars (SA) and Tony Turnbull (NSW).
Chris earned further national honours in 1995 when he beat Victorian ace Chris Alford to claim Australia’s Leading Driver Title (wins) with a then Australian Record tally of 211 winners.
He is regarded as the best big race driver in the State and has driven more than 40 Group One winners in races that include the Inter Dominion, WA Pacing Cup, Fremantle Cup, WA Derby, WA Oaks, WA Golden Slipper Stakes, Australian Pacing Championship, M H Treuer Memorial, WA Golden Nugget and NSW Miracle Mile.
He is the only Western Australian reinsman to win at Group One level in each of the five mainland States in Australia and was inducted into the WA Racing Hall of Fame in 2010.