Bell settling in well to Toowoomba surrounds

By Jordan Gerrans

When making the decision to relocate back to Queensland and reopen his own stable, horseman Darren Bell did mentally have some questions around how much support he would receive from owners.

A short time into his new venture on the Darling Downs, Bell has been pleasantly surprised by the reception he has received and has quickly filled up his 10 boxes.

The respected trainer previously based his team out of Deagon in his earlier stint in the Sunshine State and now is located at the Bahram training and spelling centre outside of Toowoomba.

Bell had his first runner back in his own name since March of 2018 earlier this month at Dalby and will be chasing a breakthrough victory at Kilcoy on Saturday with Hidden Spring.

The black-type winning trainer has spent the last five and a half years working in Victoria as an assistant trainer at the powerful Lindsay Park operation before shifting alongside Tom Dabernig to Warrnambool.

“You are never sure what kind of support you will get when you move back,” Bell said.

“But, we have managed to fill up 10 here pretty quickly and we will see how it progresses from here.

“It was time to come home and I got the itch to train again as well, so it was all part of it.”

Fellow trainer Pat Webster and his family run the Bahram training and spelling centre and the St George product says it is great to have a person of Bell’s experience working his team of out of the facility.

“It is really good for the centre to have someone like him, he is back now working a few horses,” Webster said of Bell.

In late 2017, Bell closed his Queensland stable after a strangles outbreak.

He relocated to work in Victoria under the Lindsay Park banner of the Hayes clan as an assistant trainer before following Dabernig out of the operation to Dabernig’s new Warrnambool base.

After personally battling financially following the strangles outbreak, Bell says the Victorian stints working for the Group 1-winning trainers were a positive experience on the financial front as well as from a learning perspective.

Bell now works his own stable alongside partner Danielle Sullivan.

“We really enjoyed our time down there and learnt more,” he said.

“And, while we were down there, we were able to do quite a bit of sightseeing and go on holidays, which I was not used to.

“It was very positive.”

Hidden Spring is the flag bearer for the stable at the moment and will soon be joined by the former Dabernig-prepared grey Launch Pad, who is a three-time winner from 14 attempts.

The remainder of the boxes are filled by young unraced that are working towards their first public appearances.

Bell and Sullivan inspected a number of equine facilities in the Sunshine State before settling on the Darling Downs for their next training location.

Bell – who has 82 city winners in Brisbane on his resume – thinks Toowoomba is an ideal location to relaunch his stable from, declaring the Bahram centre had impressive facilities.

“Even when I trained in Queensland before, I always thought Toowoomba would be a good place to base yourself because there has been a lot of good trainers and horses come from the Downs,” he said.

“Especially through the summer months, the climate here is a bit more forgiving here and horses struggle with the heat more than they do with the cold.

“It is fairly centrally enough located as it is an easy run into Brisbane now from Toowoomba, it is highway all the way.

“We have easy access to country meetings and then we can race here at Toowoomba every Saturday night, as well. It seemed to like a good place to base ourselves.”

Gelding Hidden Spring kicked off Bell’s new venture in Queensland with a third-placed finish at Dalby almost three weeks ago.

The son of Hidden Dragon raced back in the field before hitting the line well to only go down by two lengths.

In 0 - 55 Handicap grade over 1200 metres and with Nathan Fazackerley in the saddle, Bell is optimistic Hidden Dragon can hand his stable their first winner since September of 2017.

“He should race well,” Bell said.

“We have been happy with him and his run at Dalby.

“We stretched him out over a bit further as he has done a lot of racing over 1000 metres and shorter.

“We thought we would stretch him out a little bit and see if he could find a way to win then. He is in the right kind of race.”