RUSTIC STEEL GETS A SLOT IN THE ARCHER
- Provincial Racing NSW
- 9 minutes ago
- 3 min read
KRIS Lees will have a fourth crack at winning regional Queensland’s richest race – this time with his $2m earner Rustic Steel.
Lees has confirmed plans to run the inaugural 2022 The Big Dance winner first-up in Rockhampton’s $1m The Archer at Callaghan Park on Sunday week.
A 1300m race at set weights plus penalties, The Archer is run along similar lines to Sydney’s $20m The Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick, with 12 slots available.
Lees has booked Josh Parr to ride Rustic Steel in The Archer, which now carries record prizemoney after beginning at $440,000 in its inaugural year (2022), and was worth $775,000 in 2023 and 2024.
Rustic Steel, who has raced 32 times for 10 wins (including also The Coast at Gosford, Listed Scone Cup, Group 3 Newcastle Stakes and Listed Ladies Day Cup at Hawkesbury) and four placings and earned just over $2.1m, is raced by Queenslanders Ron and Judi Wanless.
The seven-year-old gelding, who hasn’t raced since being tried over 2000m in the Group 3 Summer Cup at Randwick on Boxing Day, has trialled twice in preparation for his resumption.
With stable apprentice Ben Osmond aboard, he won a 1000m trial on a heavy Beaumont track last Wednesday.
Rustic Steel has won on three occasions when fresh, the latest when he led throughout and bolted in with the Group 3 Newcastle Stakes (1400m) at home in March last year.
“Ron and Judi were keen to run their horse in The Archer, and have arranged everything with the slot holder,” Lees said this morning.
“Rustic Steel trialled well last week, and is in great order.
“He will go up to our Gold Coast stable, and then on to Rockhampton.”
The leading Newcastle trainer has been a staunch supporter of The Archer, but is yet to win it.
He ran Gem Song (fifth) and Ventura Ocean (seventh) in the inaugural running in 2022, Animate (sixth) and Gem Song (ninth) in 2023, and Ucalledit ran fifth last year.
Lees will be chasing a feature two-State double that weekend, as he also runs Tavi Time in the $250,000 Group 3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup (1600m) on Saturday week.
He was pleased with Tavi Time’s first-up second, after winning the Summer Cup on Boxing Day, to Sandpaper in the Benchmark 100 Handicap (1400m) at Randwick last Saturday.
However he is yet to finalise a Hawkesbury Cup rider. James McDonald, who rode Tavi Time at his resumption, will be interstate for the Queensland Guineas meeting at Eagle Farm that day.
Lees has the Group 1 $700,000 Queensland Oaks (2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 7 in mind for his ATC Oaks placegetter You Wahng.
At only her sixth start, the So You Think filly was a gutsy close third to star Victorian filly Treasurethe Moment in the 2400m Oaks at Randwick on April 12.
Lees gave You Wahng a freshen-up after her Oaks performance, and she may contest the Group 2 The Roses (2000m) at Doomben on May 24, a fortnight before the Queensland Oaks is run.
Amokura, Lees’ 2023 Queensland Oaks winner, will trial on Thursday in preparation for a return.
She hasn’t raced since finishing eighth to Fawkner Park in the Group 2 Q22 (2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 15 last year.
Miss Busslinger, who finished third in the Listed Daybreak Lover (1400m) at Eagle Farm last Saturday, and stablemate Éclair Encore have both been entered for Saturday’s Listed Princess Stakes (1600m) for three-year-old fillies at that track, but Lees at this stage is unsure whether either will line up.
Story John Curtis, April 22, 2025