by Adam Hamilton

“You’ll never know the pedestal I had you on… the world stopped turning on April 26.”

Those were just some of the words Australia’s premier driver, James Herbertson, used during his emotion-charged tribute at the Memorial Service for champion Australian driver Greg Sugars on Monday (May 12).

Herbertson, who jetted back from a working holiday in the U.S. soon after Sugars’ passing to support Sugars’ wife, Jess Tubbs, added: “He was another father to me, a mentor and an idol.”

The following day, Herbertson flew back to New Jersey to finish what he started in the U.S., but with so much to think about.The 24-year-old will use his time in the U.S., followed by a week or so in Stockholm and then an actual holiday in Poland to decide what his future holds.

Most felt it inevitable and sooner-rather-later that Herbertson would move to the U.S.

“To be honest, I wasn’t looking at staying in Australia that much longer,” he said. “But now my world has turned upside down, it will never be the same.

“Jess [Tubbs] will need a worker and a driver… we’ve all got lots of thinking to do.

“I’m not setting any return date. My partner, Ewa, has come back to the States with me and will stay for the trip.”

Herbertson drove four of the 10 winners at Melton last Saturday and two of them were for Tubbs, Illawong Larajay and No Money No Honey.

He was one of five “formal” speakers at the 90-minute service at the Melton racetrack. It’s where Sugars had driven many of his winners and enjoyed some of his biggest triumphs, including the 2022 Inter Dominion trotting final and 2023 Great Southern Star, both on champion trotter Just Believe.

This was Sugars’ last time center stage at Melton and it was both heartbreaking and beautiful.

Well over 1,000 were trackside, but many thousands more watched around the world — in the U.S., New Zealand, Europe and all parts of Australia — via Harness Racing Victoria’s live stream.

Groups gathered for “pop-up” events Addington (NZ), Albion Park in Brisbane, Globe Derby in Adelaide and Club Menangle in NSW to share the experience and memories during a service as much about Sugars the man as Sugars the Hall of Fame horseman.

At varying times this week, drivers in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and the U.S. have competed in black armbands to honor Sugars.

It’s a sign of the massive, and almost immediate, impact Sugars made on and off the track.

Everyone referred to that huge smile.

Showing amazing strength and composure at the most harrowing of times, Sugars’ wife, Jess Tubbs, was first to speak.

She was appreciative for all they had shared, but admitted to being angry and feeling robbed at losing her “person” so young.

Sugars was just 40 when he died in his sleep on April 26.

“2025 was supposed to be our year,” Tubbs said. “After two really hard years where we focused on work more than ourselves, we agreed things had to change.

Greg was the dreamer and I was the voice of reason, it’s why we worked so well together.

“There are no answers yet [as to how Sugars died], but hopefully we will have them in time, but now is about remembering him and how special he was.”

Tubbs and Sugars enjoyed the highest of highs with their champion trotter Just Believe, who won them 10 Group 1 races. He won majors in Australia and New Zealand and competed with huge distinction in Sweden in 2023, where he and Sugars gained an army of fans.

Just Believe retired in January as the second richest Down Under trotter of all time.

“The bond between ‘Harry’ [Just Believe’s stable name] and Greg was incredible and I truly believe he wouldn’t have reached the heights he did without Greg,” Tubbs said.

Just Believe’s managing owner Malcolm Wells, like so many others, talked of Greg’s sheer love of the horse.

“That, more than any of the success we had, is what I and the ownership group will treasure,” Wells said. “It was something to behold how much Greg loved that horse and spoke about him.

Greg and Jess took us on a journey we could only believe of.”

New Zealand’s greatest horseman of all time, Mark Purdon, traveled across to Melton.

“I had to be here,” Purdon said. “That’s the sort of impact Greg had on you.”Purdon often turned to Sugars to drive his stars when they were competing in Australia and he needed a driver.

They combined for several big wins, including the $305,000 Group 1 Australian Gold 2YO final with Mr Nickel, one of the richest wins of Sugars’ stellar career.

Another top Kiwi trainer Cran Dalgety gathered with a group of peers at New Zealand’s home of harness racing, Addington, to watch the livestream of the service on a big screen.

“What a beautiful service,” he said. “I’m not sure whether Australians know the impact Greg had over here and the respect we all had for him.”

One of Sugars’ closest friends, another Kiwi horseman Gavin Smith, was one of the formal speakers at Melton.

“We first met 18 years ago in Adelaide at the [Australasian] Young Drivers’ Championship and I knew within two minutes we could be great mates, which we turned out to be,” he said.

“I remember on the first night of the series, [racecaller] Jim Jacques introduced all the drivers to the crowd and went on this glowing spiel about Greg. We all laughed a bit and I looked over and that’s the first time I’d seen that big smile of Greg’s. I’ll never forget it.”

Another close friend, Alabar Bloodstock supremo Brett Coffey, had a similar recollection: “That smile and his childlike enthusiasm, that’s how I’ll always remember Greg.”

Sugars’ sister, Kylie, who spoke on behalf of his family,
talked of life growing-up in Virginia, an outer suburb of Adelaide, with their father Ross, a decorated horseman, and mother, Kerry.

“I was a tom-boy, so we were close, but always so competitive,” Kylie said. “He went to places two kids growing up in Virginia could only dream of.

“Try and all live your lives like Greg did. He lived it like he wanted and to heck with the finer details.”

Former Harness Racing NSW chief executive John Dumesny, one of the foremost Australian administrators of the modern era, also sent a touching tribute.

“Greg was a man of the highest qualities and a man who walked with the giants of our industry,” he said.

“He was one of the rarest participants in my time in the game, rare because he was able to transcend all sectors of harness racing.

“Greg’s knowledge of horses and skills were sought by participants young and old. His knowledge was freely given to those who at some point would be his competitors.

Further, his uniqueness is founded on the fact his insider knowledge was accepted by all because it had no bias attached.”

Despite his relatively young age, Sugars built a Hall of Fame record with over 4,000 wins, 71 at Group 1 level and wins in many of Down Under’s iconic races.

But what’s clear is the impact he made off the track was at least the equal, if not even greater, than his amazing deeds on it.