Forlorn Bell ponders uncertain future
EMBATTLED trainer Darren Bell was doing it tough in the Gold Coast parade yard.
The cheering had died down and all other trainers and owners had left.
It was just Bell and a small group of owners left. A woman leant across the fence and hugged Bell.
Reality was hitting home. Bell, reeling after his stables were quarantined because of a strangles outbreak this year, had just watched his last runner, Willowbrook Wonder, run fifth at the Coast on Saturday.
“It’s been very hard. It’s very emotional. I’m struggling with it,” the 49-year-old trainer said after the group of owners wandered off.
“It’s got on top of me. It’s got the better of me, financially and mentally.”
Bell will close the gate of his stable tomorrow and start poring over his accounts to see just how much he owes. Estimates of the cost of his stable being shut for four months last summer have been put at $100,000.
“My first job is to finish up and then start to work through our finances and we can start to square up again,” Bell said.
Strangles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that is treatable but can be fatal to horses in extreme cases.
Government and racing authorities take it seriously. So did Bell.
He reported it to authorities. His career is now over.
“This has been my whole life. My dad Peter used to train and I used to help Dad out when I was at school,” the Deagon-based trainer said.
“This is all I have ever done. This is my only job.
From a peak of 23 horses, Bell had just nine left in his stables at the weekend. All of them are likely to be gone by tomorrow.
That’s why owners lean across a fence at the Gold Coast racecourse to hug him.
“It’s very difficult. A lot of these people I have known for a lot of years,” said Bell, who has held a trainer’s licence for 18 years.
The Queensland branch of the Australian Trainers Association has launched an appeal to help Bell financially.
“I’m embarrassed by it in a way,” said Bell, a proud man who had refused help in the past.
“I’m not comfortable with people doing that for me.”
The appeal is being driven Cameron Partington, the association’s co-ordinator and a leading jockey manager.
“He rang me the other day and said, ‘Mate, I know you refused it before but people want to help – you can’t stop people helping’,” Bell said.
“I’m overwhelmed by it. It’s been quite emotional, the amount of support.”
Asked if he would return to training if the appeal raised enough money to clear his debt, he thought carefully.
“I would never say never but it certainly won’t be in the near future,” Bell said.