THE ARCHER SHOOTING FOR NEW HEIGHTS

By Graham Potter | Monday, November 14, 2022

It doesn’t matter what your starting point is … a seventy-six percent increase in prize-money for a particular feature race is a huge boost … and when it comes in what is already Regional Queensland’s richest race it is a really big deal for that racing region.

The Archer, held under the auspices of the Central Queensland Amateur Racing Club, had its inaugural running earlier this year for total race prize-money of $440 000.

The 2023 edition of The Archer will offer $775 000 in prize-money … a whopping $335 000 increase.

Another very important change to the schedule is the fact that the 2023 edition of The Archer has now been moved to a Sunday meeting (on April 30) where it will be able to hold a prominent position as the state’s feature race meeting of the day.

“This significant prize money increase – facilitated largely by an increase in slot holder fee obligations – coupled with the race moving to a standalone Sunday, means our race day is set for success,” said Rocky Amateurs Chairman Bill Reid.

The inaugural running of The Archer produced a thrilling finish with the Robert Heathcote trained Emerald Kingdom collaring the Desleigh Forster trained 2021/22 Queensland Horse Of the Year, Apache Chase in the final strides.

Ironically, Emerald Kingdom has since been transferred to the Forster stable … but, whatever the makeup of their respective runners, there is no doubt that both Heathcote and Forster will have every intention of being part of Rockhampton’s big race again next year.

And there is also likely to be several other high profile stables targeting the race in a keen chase for a sgtarting berth with only a limited number of slots available.

The Archer is run over 1300 metres at Rockhampton’s Callaghan Park under Weight-For-Age conditions.

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