Jess\u00a0Tubbs will return to the scene of the greatest night of her career without her best mate and sparring partner.<\/p>\n
It was 19 months ago when Tubbs and husband, Greg Sugars, dominated the sport\u2019s biggest night at Albion Park by winning the 2023 Inter Dominion final with the great Just Believe and having Better Eclipse chase champion Leap To Fame into second place in the pacing final.<\/p>\n
It was Just Believe\u2019s second successive Inter Dominion win and a night for both to reflect on two years of a concerted and deliberately obsessive focus on their horses at the expense themselves.<\/p>\n
Just Believe retired early this year as one of the greatest trotters this part of the world has seen and Better Eclipse just missed qualifying for Saturday night\u2019s pacing final, but such is the depth of Tubbs\u2019 stable, she has star mare Rakero Rebel in the $1 million pacing decider.<\/p>\n
This time she\u2019s done it alone.<\/p>\n
The Australasian harness racing industry was devastated by shock and sadness when the fit, healthy and just 40-year-old Sugars\u00a0was found in a Sydney hotel room less than three months ago. He died in his sleep.<\/p>\n
Sugars was a champion driver with over 4000 wins, including 70 at Group 1 level. Together, he and Tubbs had rapidly grown into a training juggernaut, too.<\/p>\n
“Greg was the dreamer and ideas man, I was the practical one. We complemented each other like that,” Tubbs said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of this has the same meaning without him. I\u2019m still getting used to it, everything reminds me of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve come to Queensland and I\u2019m staying in the unit he was in last time. Nobody\u2019s stayed in it since he was here so some of the things are still here, even his face wash is in the shower.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are supposed to share moments like this (Saturday night). We\u2019d consciously made a decision a few years ago to throw everything into the horses because we had such a good team, but we weren\u2019t oblivious to the toll it was taking on us personally. There was a year where Greg was away travelling for six months with the horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe saddest part is that we\u2019d done those hard yards. We\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople ask if I feel angry because of that, but all I feel is immense loss and sadness. My other half isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trained a double at Melton the other week and came home to an empty house, instead of cooking up something to eat, watching the replays and having a laugh with Greg. That\u2019s the hardest part, the loneliness when we were so close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tubbs knows she may never learn how Sugars died.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing came out in the preliminary report and it could be nine to 18 months before I get a report from the coroner, but they\u2019ve told me to prepare so that I\u00a0may never know the cause,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take comfort from the fact he was happy, calm and asleep when it happened. He\u2019d had a good day, we\u2019d been texting and calling about how much he was looking forward to racing the horses (at Menangle) the next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sad, not angry. I know how much Greg would hate the situation he\u2019s left me in, after spending so much of his life working hard to set us both up.\u201d<\/p>\n
How and when Tubbs learned of Sugars\u2019 death was the hardest part.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people seemed to know before me and it was starting to be talked about by the time the police actually arrived at my door to confirm my worst fears,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became so public so quickly and there were rumors and speculation and my phone didn\u2019t stop ringing. I felt I had to post what I knew on social media so I could get some privacy, but that was harrowing because I hadn\u2019t processed it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big team of horses, staff and owners at Larajay Farm have given Tubbs a focus and purpose through her darkest hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I need to do for now, but I don\u2019t know what the future holds in years to come because this is such a hard and brutal industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave up a corporate job to go full time at this with Greg because he couldn\u2019t do it by himself, so I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to cope.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for now the horses are my priority and we\u2019ll go to Albion Park on Saturday night with so many memories of Greg coming back and hoping our lovely mare (Rakero Rebel) can give us all something to cheer about.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of a big week for Tubbs with Just Believe becoming only the second harness horse to spend his retirement at the famed Living Legends\u00a0alongside star thoroughbreds like Chautauqua, Prince Of Penzance, Pakistan Star and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s lovely for harness racing to be recognised and have Sundons Gift and now \u2018Harry\u2019 (Just Believe\u2019s stable name) part of Living Legends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jess\u00a0Tubbs will return to the scene of the greatest night of her career without her best mate and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-266109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114855578646345747","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}