{"id":371552,"date":"2026-04-26T19:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=371552"},"modified":"2026-04-26T19:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:13:32","slug":"crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Brisbane friends Ben McDevitt and Michael Vanbrugh, both members of the 6RAR Association, came to Wondai to mark Anzac Day, taking part in both the Dawn Service and morning march before heading off to the races … Ben served in peace-keeping missions in Cyprus, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands; 6RAR Association treasurer Michael served in south-east Asia and Malaya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 26, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The South Burnett Race Club’s annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.<\/p>\n

And with Anzac Day falling on a Saturday this year, the crowd was bigger than ever!<\/p>\n

A few scuds of rain earlier in the day didn’t dampen the enthusiasm and all five races went ahead as planned with some very tight finishes.<\/p>\n

The Fashions of the Field competition (see below) was also keenly supported.<\/p>\n

Out on the track, the start of Race 2 – the Wondai Diggers Cup – was a tad chaotic with four of the five runners having rocky starts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gold Revolution was the most dramatic, rearing as the barriers opened and tossing jockey Kelly Gates from the saddle.<\/p>\n

Gates was examined by ambulance paramedics at the track and was forced to withdraw from her final three races due to an arm injury. As there were no replacement jockeys available, her mounts in the remaining three races were scratched.<\/p>\n

Gold Revolution raced keenly by himself for the rest of the race before being caught by track officials.<\/p>\n

A post-race veterinary examination of the gelding failed to reveal any apparent problems but he will have to pass a barrier trial before he can race again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kaina Williams, from Wondai; Brittany Schulz, Murgon; and Jamie Evans, TIngoora, were enjoying a day at the races<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Summer Ewen, from Tamborine Mountain, with Amanda Fry, Gold Coast<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kirstie Schumacher, Kingaroy, with Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington (Photo: Nanango Electorate Office)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"\"<\/a>
South Burnett Race Club president Jeff Wenck with John Schrader, representing trainer Kym Afford, and Wondai RSL Sub-Branch president Michael Rose with the Wondai Diggers Cup trophy for Race 2 winner Mamaragan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Felicity Reinke, from Wondai, with Dellese Heit, Kingaroy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Katie Grimmond and Poppy, 9, from Redgate; with Miriam and Bill Colley and June, 9, from Murgon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fashions Of The Field<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Fashions of the Field is always very popular at Wondai, and Anzac Day was no exception with many entrants dressing to the theme of “Poppies and Pearls”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff compered the parades while judges Amy Hutfield and Riley Cavanagh made the difficult decision of deciding the winners!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Women’s fashions of the field … Best Dressed Lady runner-up Chanelle Ferling, Kilcoy; and winner Rhiannon Watkins, Murgon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Girls fashions … runner-up June Colley, 9; and winner Kenzie Nowland, 5, from Moondooner<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Boys fashions … winner Oscar Hughes, 15 months, with his proud mum Lizzie, from Brisbane<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Men’s fashions … runner-up Zac Dennien, Kingaroy; and winner Luke Male, Toowoomba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The line-up of entrants in the Best Dressed Lady fashions competition … the theme was “Poppies and Pearls”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Race Results<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Mamaragan, with Emma Simsir on board, and Zena Boy (Wayne O’Connell) battle it out in the straight in Race 2, the Wondai Diggers Cup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Race 1 \u2013 Ken Mills Machinery Kingaroy Ratings Band 0 – 50 Handicap (1100m)
\n<\/strong>1. She’s A Revelation (10)\u00a0 \u2013 Wayne O’Connell
\n2. Master Miyagi (3) \u2013 Adam Spinks
\n3. Costa Catori (1) \u2013 Chris Meehan
\nTime:\u00a0 1:07.55
\nMargins:\u00a0 Short neck x 1 1\/2 lengths<\/p>\n

Race 2 \u2013 Wondai Diggers Cup Open Handicap (1000m)
\n<\/strong>1. Mamaragan (5) \u2013 Emma Simsir
\n2. Zena Boy (4) \u2013 Wayne O’Connell
\n3. Diggity (7) \u2013 Chris Meehan
\nTime:\u00a0 1:00.31
\nMargins: Short head x 5 3\/4 lengths<\/p>\n

Race 3 \u2013 The Norm Andresen Memorial QTIS Maiden Plate (1000m)
\n<\/strong>1. Extra Hands (6) \u2013 Wayne O’Connell
\n2. The Hindustan (3) \u2013 Courtney Ferris
\n3. Foxtrotting (4) \u2013 Adam Spinks
\nTime: 1:01.18
\nMargins: 1\/2 length\u00a0 x 3 3\/4 lengths<\/p>\n

Race 4 \u2013 Deb Frecklington MP Benchmark 55 Handicap (850m)
\n<\/strong>1. Paper Cowboy (4) \u2013 Nathan Thomas
\n2. Sutherland (1) \u2013 Courtney Ferris
\n3. Rocky Blonde (5) \u2013 Emma Simsir
\nTime: 51.56
\nMargins: 2 lengths x 1\/2 head<\/p>\n

Race 5 \u2013 Crumpton’s Lest We Forget Benchmark 50 Handicap (1577m)
\n<\/strong>1. Rapid Dude (4) \u2013 Nathan Thomas
\n2. Pauli (9) \u2013 Chris Meehan
\n3. Khant Fail (5) \u2013 Courtney Ferris
\nTime: 1:38.99
\nMargins: 5 1\/2 lengths x 1 1\/4 lengths<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gold Revolution knew what he was supposed to do in Race 2 … the five-year-old gelding galloped strongly towards the finishing line; unfortunately he left his jockey, Kelly Gates, at the barriers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Extra Hands (Wayne O’Connell) and The Hindustan (Courtney Ferris) head towards the line in Race 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South Burnett Race Club’s annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":371560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1912,1901,3,58,6],"tags":[1136,26],"yoast_head":"\nCrowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T09:09:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T09:13:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260425wondai01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"492\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/\",\"name\":\"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T09:09:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-26T09:13:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au","description":"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2026-04-26T09:09:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-26T09:13:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":740,"height":492,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260425wondai01.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/","name":"Crowds Unwind At Anzac Day Races - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-26T09:09:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-26T09:13:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"The South Burnett Race Club's annual Anzac Day Races at Wondai always attract a big crowd on the public holiday, with attendees keen to unwind after morning commemorations around the region.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/04\/26\/crowds-unwind-at-anzac-day-races\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371552"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371582,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371552\/revisions\/371582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}