Central Queensland horse trainer facing probe after stable raid in the lead-up to The Archer at Rockhampton

The running of regional Queensland’s richest new race, The Archer, wasn’t without controversy on Saturday after a horse in one of the lead-up events was scratched in sensational circumstances. Here’s what happened after stewards swooped on a trainer’s stables.

A Central Queensland horse trainer is at the centre of a stewards investigation after one of his runners was sensationally withdrawn from a lead-up event to regional Queensland’s richest new race, The Archer, at Rockhampton on Saturday.

The Allan Clark trained Whoa Lola was set to run in race six at Callaghan Park, but just over an hour before that race, Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) stewards declared the four-year-old mare a late scratching at 2.10pm.

Whoa Lola, a last start Rockhampton winner, would have started one of the favourites, if not the punters’ elect, for the $17,000 Benchmark 65 Handicap (1200m) and the reason for its withdrawal by order of the stewards was later revealed.

In a statement released by QRIC on Saturday afternoon, it said its integrity investigations team had detected “an incident relating to an alleged race day treatment” on Saturday morning during their inspections.

“Samples have been taken and items have been seized from the stables which are subject to an investigation,” the QRIC statement said.

“The samples will be sent for analysis and the stewards have adjourned their inquiry to a date to be fixed.”

Whoa Lola has raced with success for trainer Clark, who shares in the mare’s ownership, winning three of her eight career starts and being minor placed on a further three occasions.

Saturday’s race day at Rockhampton, hosted by the Rocky Amateurs Race Club, saw the running of the inaugural The Archer, a feature slot race carrying $440,000 in prize money and based on Sydney’s highly successful The Everest.

The Archer was won by Brisbane galloper, the Robert Heathcote trained Emerald Kingdom ($11SP), ridden by Rockhampton jockey Ashley Butler for slot holders Rob and Leonie Carr.

Fellow Brisbane horse, the Desleigh Forster trained Apache Chase ($2.70 favourite), finished second with Sydney’s Dawn Passage, prepared by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, in third.

Victorian Group 1 winner Streets of Avalon was unfortunately scratched from The Archer on Friday after it had to be treated for a viral infection.

The Shane Nichols trained star and winner of $1.1 million in stakes, was floated more than 2000km, arriving in a healthy state in Rockhampton earlier in the week.

On Friday following the scratching of Streets of Avalon, Racing Queensland (RQ) announced that the horse’s slot holders were sourcing a replacement horse.

However that did not eventuate and RQ later confirmed that The Archer would be conducted with 11 runners and not the full field of 12.

In relation to the unfortunate turn of events, The Rocky Amateurs Race Club made this announcement on social media on Saturday morning: “Emergencies were allocated and nominated for the race for the very reason of a scratching. An agreement was reached between slot holders and emergency horse owners however the starting of the emergency was given the red light by RQ due to wagering.”