{"id":233977,"date":"2019-04-26T22:23:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T12:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=233977"},"modified":"2020-07-21T11:47:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T01:47:44","slug":"easter-bunny-salutes-at-nanango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/04\/26\/easter-bunny-salutes-at-nanango\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Bunny Salutes At Nanango"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brisbane’s Rachel Suter and Belinda Kinderman stayed with friends in Maidenwell over Easter … they made their Easter bonnets on the kitchen table on Saturday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 26, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bar ran out of champagne, 70 kilos of chips were cooked … by any measure, Nanango’s Easter Race meeting on Saturday was a huge success.<\/p>\n

And although only one favourite greeted the judge, omen punters would have been pleased; the jockey sported an (Easter) bunny on its silks!<\/p>\n

The weather gods smiled on the meeting, but it was a close thing.<\/p>\n

Race Club president Andrew Green said he heard heavy rain on the roof just as he was drifting off to sleep on Friday night and feared the worst.<\/p>\n

He was relieved when Saturday dawned dry.<\/p>\n

Happily, the weather stayed that way for most of the day even though many patrons drove through heavy showers to get to the track.<\/p>\n

Those who pushed on were rewarded with one of Nanango Race Club’s biggest meetings of the year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bumper crowds packed the undercover areas, the grandstand and the canteen for most of the day; bookmakers were busy in the betting ring; and the mounting yard fence was a sea of faces.<\/p>\n

The bar ran out of both vodka and champagne towards the middle of the meeting and had to send out for fresh supplies; and the canteen served a record amount of hot chips.<\/p>\n

The meeting had a festive air, with many patrons dressing in brightly coloured Easter bonnets and uploading smartphone selfies to the Race Club’s social media pages for a chance to win prizes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opposition Leader and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington brought along her three daughters for a rare family day away from the hurly-burly of politics, and many other patrons came from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Gympie for a day of country racing fun.<\/p>\n

The three-day Maidenwell Running Festival also proved an unexpected bonus for the race club.<\/p>\n

Most of its foot races were run on Saturday morning which allowed the runners to take an afternoon off to experience another side of the South Burnett.<\/p>\n

The sole winning favourite was Machu Picchu in Race 4.<\/p>\n

Jockey Hannah English was wearing a very large bunny rabbit on her silks, the favoured design of the horse’s trainer Brian “Bunny” Laherty.<\/p>\n