Final field locked and loaded for The Archer

By Tony McMahon

The final field for the highly-anticipated $775,000 The Archer has been officially unveiled.

Following weeks of negotiations, the final two runners were confirmed in the last 24 hours, with Victorian sprinter Blaze A Trail - trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace - and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Randwick sprinter Surf Dancer heading to the beef capital.

Gai Waterhouse, the official ambassador for The Archer, has stated she is targeting an emotional win in the state’s richest provincial race to honour a commitment to the late Rocky Amateurs committee member Alan Acton.

“I have Surf Dancer going up and it is going to start in Alan (and Jennifer’s) slot,” she told the Courier Mail this week.

“Jennifer (Alan’s wife) wants to carry on with it so much because she knows how much that race meant to Alan.

“How much time and energy he put into the Archer was very special.”

In the inaugural The Archer last year, the Acton slot was represented by Waterhouse-Bott trained Dawn Passage, who finished third with the parties looking to once again reunite prior to Alan’s tragic passing two weeks ago.

Surf Dancer heads to Rockhampton with a resume that includes the $250,000 Group 2 Shannon Stakes at Rosehill last September, as well as the South Grafton Cup in July.

Meanwhile, Blaze A Trail is a five-time winner from 1200 to 1400 metres and has won at both Rosehill and Caulfield over the former trip.

The gelding has been primed for a first-up crack at The Archer with two barrier trial placings recently at Warwick Farm, having not raced since last November.

He will be the first Rockhampton starter for the highly successful Maher and Eustace partnership, representing the Sunshine State-based Three Amigos Syndicate.

“Two of us have horses with Ciaron Maher and when Bill Reid (Rocky Amateurs) told us Ciaron was keen to send a horse up for The Archer we jumped in,” syndicate manager Mark Von Senden said.

“Ciaron told us Blaze A Trail is going super after two Sydney trials and he races well fresh.

“He said the horse was not in The Archer just to make up the numbers. I asked him about a likely jockey and he said that he had someone in mind.”