Attendance record broken at 101st Bell Races 2025 with more than 2100 at the track

The population of the small Western Downs town of Bell quintupled at the weekend with race lovers flooding to the region’s first meet of the year.

More than 2100 punters were trackside for the Bell Race Day 2025 (contributed: Ange Stirling Photography)

The Bell Races celebrated another record breaking year with more than 2100 guests in attendance for the event’s 101st outing.

The event on Saturday was the Western Downs’ first race meet of the year and one of the most important annual events for the town of about 400 people.

There were five races across the day with Ludik taking out in race one, Aurelian Blanc claiming the win in race two, Devil’s Rite in race three and Tsukino and Miss Gabbiano in races four and five respectively.

Bell Race Day 2025. Photo contributed: Ange Stirling Photography

Bell Racing Club secretary Kirsten Todd hailed the 101st annual event a success.

“It went really well and ran really smoothly,” she said.

“We had another record crowd this year with an official tally of about 2150 people, but it was probably a little bit more than that.

“The track was great, the horses ran really well, the foot race was fun, fashions went well and the bachelor and bachelorette went well.

“The only thing that was a little iffy was that the mobile service cut out a few times because we had so many people and the eftpos machines weren't working for a while but we got it sorted and we will have Wi-Fi next year so it doesn't happen again.”

Ms Todd said following positive feedback from the community the committee felt they were onto a winning formula.

“I think we are going to keep doing what we are doing, we have a really good bar, DJ Johnny Mac gets the crowd going and I don't think we will change much because everybody seems to love what we are doing,” she said.

“I’ve had so many people say to me the Bell Races has the best vibes and feel about it of any country race meeting they’ve been to.

“We were all so happy and relieved it went well.”

Bell Race Day 2025 (contributed: Ange Stirling Photography)

Ms Todd said the event was massive for Bell and would continue into the future.

“We are so happy we’ve created something where young people from all over Queensland and Australia want to come to Bell and experience it, it feels really good,” she said.

“The shops were busy, the caravan park is booked out months in advance and this is one of the few things we have over the Christmas season, the towns people love coming for a day out and even if they don't like drinking and partying they like to come and volunteer or be behind the bar and ticket booth.”