Belle on the ball for Wamuran horseman

By Jordan Gerrans

Wamuran horseman Wayne Campbell is renowned for his close personal connection with his horses and he was able to add another winner that he had bred to his resume on Monday evening.

The 69-year-old has stepped away from his harness training and driving in recent years to focus on his day job to pay the bills.

Campbell is well-known within the Sunshine State industry through his relationship with his pride and joy, Chip Del.

In late 2020, former racehorse Chip Del passed away at the grand old age of 38.

The hard-working trainer and driver has been back at the races a little more over the last year or so with a pacer he bred from his former race mare Louisianna Belle.

It took her son Vincent Belle 11 trials to even to get to his debut performance but the three-year-old finally broke through at his 14^th attempt on Monday night around Redcliffe’s ‘The Triangle’.

The passionate industry participant says it was a special occasion to see Vincent Belle land his maiden victory as Campbell did the driving himself in wet conditions.

“Everyone knows the effort my wife and I put into it,” Campbell said.

“We put in massive days, working a full-time job while also breeding and doing the horses. To get a massive reward like this, it makes a lot of things worthwhile.

“I have always loved the game and being in it, harness racing.

“So many people congratulated me at the track on Monday night, that made me so proud.”

Louisianna Belle ran in the last of her 87 career races in June of 2011 and finished her career with seven victories and 17 minor placings for the Campbell clan.

Despite being retired for more than a decade, Vincent Belle is Louisianna Belle’s first progeny to make it to the races.

The stable would have loved to put more time and effort into their breeding interests over the last decade or so but with Campbell juggling a full-time gig at the Queensland Equestrian Centre as a groundsman, time was limited.

The result on Monday evening was Campbell’s first training triumph since the 2013-14 campaign while his last winner in the bike himself was way back in the 2011-12 term.

“That is the challenge of it,” he said of breeding his own stock. 

“It is just myself and my family, that is it and we do all the horses together.

“I have always said that if you breed a horse, get him to the races and he does everything right – you should get some kind of bonus (laughs).

“People do not understand how tough it is at times.”

Vincent Belle was a constant at the trials through back end of last year into 2025.

He trialled an astonishing 11 times before he officially debuted in a race, which came in late February earlier this year.

Campbell says the lengthy trial education was crucial to his gelding’s journey.

“I work horses by themselves and you cannot teach a horse to chop and change and all that stuff,” he said.

“He just had to learn how to do things – follow horses and pass horses. He was just a big raw-boned baby. He is a big raw-boned fella, but he is a really nice horse. He is just a big kid.”

“I wasn’t going to start him and break his heart by putting him in qualifying trials or anything like that until he was ready.

“In every trial he had, his time just dropped and dropped – he learnt how to race through the trials and the education.”

Vincent Belle started from three on the front line on Monday evening and Campbell put his gelding into the race as they turned for home on the final occasion.

The reinsman took Vincent Belle wide in the run to eventually score by almost three metres.

It was the pacer’s 14^th race start on Monday night, with all of them coming at Redcliffe.

Campbell says he will sit back now and devise a racing plan for the future with his gelding now that he has broken maiden ranks.

“It was about time, he has done a good job,” he said.

Campbell’s former stable star Chip Del was a force to be reckoned with throughout the 1980s, amassing 98 starts for 16 wins and 27 minor placings, banking more than $100,000 in stakes along the way, as well as two Sires Stakes races and a Breeders Stakes.

Chip Del was retired in July 1989, two short of 100 starts, with Campbell taking her to a final race in Rocklea to ensure that her stakes earnings surpassed the $100,000 mark.