A huge crowd gathered for the first of the year\u2019s race meetings in Central Otago at Omakau.<\/p>\n
Heavy rain overnight left the ground muddy but that did not deter punters or the 34 entrants in the Fashion in the Field event.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s pony cart racing Kidz Kartz definitely had the cute factor wound right up. Winner of the first race Quinn Wilmott, 10, of Christchurch, driving Nigel, was thrilled with a win in her first outing. Her father Blair said she had done better than he had after an unsuccessful drive in the amateur races.<\/p>\n
There was plenty of entertainment to keep children busy, including a bouncy castle, mini Jeeps, an obstacle course and sumo suits.<\/p>\n
Many groups were well set up for the day with gazebos, picnics and chilly bins full of refreshments. A gigantic screen made sure every move on the course could be seen by the enthusiastic punters.<\/p>\n
For those who fancied something extra there was a wide range of food vendors offering everything from pizza to ice-cream and donuts.<\/p>\n
Dressing up for the races is a big part of the day for many and the Fashion in the Field was hugely popular with 34 entries, including three men.<\/p>\n
One of the four judges Cara Holland was formerly of St Bathans and now works in the racing industry in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
The number and standard of the entrants was impressive, Ms Holland said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s bigger than many country events in Victoria.”<\/p>\n
Judges were looking for someone who epitomised country racing, she said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not a Melbourne Cup outfit. They need to wear heels but not something spiky that will dig into the grass. You need a hat because it\u2019s the races but one to keep the sun off.”<\/p>\n
Winner Poppy Balneaves, of Invercargill, captured all the requirements in her equisitely co-ordinated lavender outfit from the brim of her hat to her block heeled sandals.<\/p>\n
The three placegetters all won jewellery, vouchers, gifts and cash from a variety of businesses including Jamies Jewellers and Flying with Birds, in Alexandra, who also supplied the judges for the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge crowd gathered for the first of the year\u2019s race meetings in Central Otago at Omakau. Heavy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-213744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}