Jess Tubbs is a fighter

With overwhelming sadness in her heart, the trainer is on a mission to win the TAB Eureka with Fighter Command.

by Adam Hamilton

Jess Tubbs is on a mission driven by heartbreak.

Tubbs lost her husband, champion horseman Greg Sugars, on April 26 and together they were chasing redemption in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on Sept. 6.

Sugars passed away suddenly and inexplicably in his sleep at just 40 years of age. He had driven over 4,000 winners, including 70 at Group 1 level. Together, he and Tubbs had rapidly grown into a training juggernaut, too.

The most exciting horse in their Myrniong stable, about an hour outside Melbourne, was the raw, untapped but very talented Fighter Command.

Sugars described the 4-year-old as “our project horse.”

This time last year, Fighter Command burst into the TAB Eureka picture as a real X-factor when he thrashed his rivals in the $80,000 Beautide in Hobart, Tasmania. The win secured him a start in the Eureka through the Tasracing slot.

Maybe the race had come a year early for the immature pacer, but he was guaranteed to draw well as a 3-year-old under the preferential barrier draw in a race restricted to 3- and 4-year-old Australian-bred pacers.

There’s no doubt he had the talent.

Two weeks after the Beautide and just days out from the Eureka, Fighter Command fell ill and went downhill quickly.

The twisted bowel saw him rushed to the vet clinic and fighting for his life for the best part of a week.

The TAB Eureka dream was over, and for several days, Sugars and Tubbs feared his life could be, too.

Fighter Command pulled through, but what damage had been done?

“It’s step-by-step,” Tubbs said. “First we just hope he’d make it [survive] and then you start to think if he’ll ever race again.”

Six months of caring and nurturing later and Fighter Command made it back to the races.

It was less than ideal. With Sugars aboard, he drew wide, struck some trouble and finished last at Menangle on Feb. 22.

He improved for fourth the next week then had a freshen-up before getting back into the winner’s circle again at his third start back at Melton with Sugars in the bike on April 12.

The comeback had a serious pulse.

Sugars took Fighter Command to Sydney to race at Menangle on April 26 where he was expected to win again.

The gelding did win, but Blake Fitzpatrick was aboard, not Sugars.

The previous night, Sugars went to bed in his hotel room and didn’t wake up.

Tubbs knows she may never learn how Sugars died.

“Nothing came out in the preliminary report and it could be nine to 18 months before I get a report from the coroner, but they’ve told me to prepare so that I may never know the cause,” she said. “I take comfort from the fact he was happy, calm and asleep when it happened. He’d had a good day; we’d been texting and calling about how much he was looking forward to racing the horses [at Menangle] the next day.

“I’m sad, not angry. I know how much Greg would hate the situation he’s left me in, after spending so much of his life working hard to set us both up.”

Together, Tubbs and Sugars had built something special.

“Greg was the dreamer and ideas man, I was the practical one,” Tubbs said. “We complemented each other like that. None of this has the same meaning without him. I’m still getting used to it, everything reminds me of him.

“The saddest part is that we’d made a conscious decision a couple of years back to throw ourselves completely into the horses because we had such a good team and we’d done those hard yards.

“We’d agreed this was to be a year of enjoying things and doing more things together, outside of the horses. To invest in ourselves and our relationship. People ask if I feel angry because of that, but all I feel is immense loss and sadness. My other half isn’t there.

“I trained a double at Melton a few weeks ago and came home to an empty house, instead of cooking up something to eat, watching the replays and having a laugh with Greg. That’s the hardest part, the loneliness when we were so close.”

Fighter Command and a big team of horses has helped Tubbs through an unimaginably harrowing time.

That’s why returning to Tasmania and winning last Saturday night’s $80,000 Beautide again was so special.

It was the biggest step yet in continuing what Tubbs and Sugars had started together, especially with Fighter Command.

He had his ticket back for another shot at the TAB Eureka, only this time as a bigger, stronger, faster and more mature 4-year-old.

He will challenge for favoritism in the Sept. 6 race.

“Now to stock up on bubble wrap,” Tubbs posted on Instagram after the Beautide.

After the disappointment of Fighter Command’s setback last year, Tubbs had refused to let herself think beyond the Beautide.

Now she can and needs to.

Fighter Command will need another lead-up race with the Eureka still another month away.

Adding to the emotion-charged story is the fact James Herbertson now drives Fighter Command.

Herbertson, Australia’s premier driver, was a disciple of Sugars.

“Greg was my friend, my mentor and my idol,” Herbertson said.

Herbertson will be driving with Sugars on his shoulder.