Day 204 - 29/6/14 - Prairie QLD

A slow start to the day: a leisurely breakfast, showers and don glad rags to hit the race track.

Couldn’t help but hear Sambo explaining to Mum that his feet would just get dirty again …. Luke made wraps for lunch after chocolate cake for morning tea – seems you can eat well on the road.

Buffy, the pub mascot.

Hughenden race track is undergoing refurbishment so their yearly races are being held at the Prairie track.  This is your typical country track consisting of a few open corrugated iron sheds and a stewards’ tower alongside a dusty dirt track.  The day is perfect, clear blue skies in the mid-twenties.  A friendly crowd of locals and a few grey nomads join us for five races, and the event is well run by the brigade of moleskin-wearing volunteers straight from one of Banjo’s poems. 

Tickets are required for alcoholic refreshments and they get better value when you buy in bulk. I hand over a fifty and am asked how many tickets I would like? ‘A hundred’ I quickly replied, causing some consternation amongst the staff until they got the joke – I got 23 tickets, but with beers $4 a can there was no arguing the value.

Although we didn’t eat, the scent of steak and burgers being BBQ’d wafted enticingly throughout the shaded seating areas.  Under a nearby tree some of the kids from the pub last night were watching events, and the boys spent some of the day with them, in between looking at the horses in the ring and, of course, watching the races.

The dry track seemed a little tricky underfoot on the last bend before the 200m straight to the finish and a number of the runners struggled or ran wide.  That said there were no falls and if memory serves only one favourite came in – good for me as the tried and true method of picking an outsider with a nice name paid off!  We could wander over and stand at the fence opposite the mirror to watch each race, Sam sat up on the fence and only the jockeys had a better view. 

After the races we sneak back to the pub via the back road and settle in for a few cold ones.  Another tasty dinner on the old shearers’ mess table in the homey dining room went down very well, and Jack continued to put in the groundwork on the publican’s daughters.  Earlier than perhaps expected I slink away to my lovely room and warm bed: very tired, a little drunk, and very happy.

…. Oh, Sam was right about his feet.