There's more to the Birdsville Races than bets, beers and big blowflies.

Thousands of punters have come from every corner of Australia to the isolated outpost on the edge of the Simpson Desert to take in the races, known as the Melbourne Cup of the outback.

But it's not necessarily the sport of kings that's brought them to one of the most remote thoroughbred carnivals in the world.

Friends and former neighbours Jacki Tran and Gracelyn Chipperfield, from the Queensland coast, travelled to the races to honour their late husbands, neither of whom got the chance to visit Birdsville.

"It was always in our plans," Ms Tran told AAP of her late husband.

"But he passed and I'm here to say, 'I've got this babe'."

For Murray Dunlop and Laurie Driscoll, a trip to the races is a celebration of th

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