Running was her game; Black Easter Bunny was her name.
Black Easter Bunny was by Hysition (TB) and out of Flicka. She was campaigned from 2 to 7, winning $40,232 during a time of small purses. She started 111 races, winning 21 times, with 22 seconds and 14 thirds, and set or equaled three track records.
In 1957, Spencer Childers bought the mare from trainer Walt Culbertson after she won her last race. Childers bought her for $7,500. Black Easter Bunny provided the breeding foundation for Childers and, in turn, provided the racing world with one of the most prepotent female lines of durable, winning sprinters.
As a broodmare, she produced seven foals. Five of those started races, each a winner and Register of Merit-earner, including the stakes-placed Moon Deck gelding Harlequin and racing champion Bunny’s Bar Maid.
Bunny’s Bar Maid won the Kansas Futurity in 1961, less than a month before clocking the fastest qualifying time to the All American Futurity. In the final, Bunny’s Bar Maid was second to champion Pokey Bar. In 11 races, Bunny’s Bar Maid earned more than $72,000.
“She raised some very fine horses for us,” Childers said. “But Black Easter Bunny had a relatively short breeding career. She suffered an injury while she was being bred, and that ended her career and her life. She was a wonderful mare.”
Black Easter Bunny was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2002.
Biography updated as of March 2002.