![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fighter.jpg\")
The\u00a0pieces of one of racing\u2019s most emotional and fairytale jigsaw puzzles are falling into place.<\/p>\nThe\u00a0pieces of one of racing\u2019s most emotional and fairytale jigsaw puzzles are falling into place.<\/p>\n
A pacer the late Greg Sugars described as his \u201cproject horse\u201d, and who was denied a start in the world\u2019s richest harness race a year ago when almost died of a twisted bowel, has booked his spot in this year\u2019s $2.1 million TAB Eureka.<\/p>\n
There could be no more fitting or emotion-charged win than Fighter Command beating his rivals at Menangle on September 6.<\/p>\n
Only now is Sugars\u2019 widow and Fighter Command\u2019s trainer Jess Tubbs allowing herself to think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter everything that happened last year with the horse, we\u2019ve very much taken it one step at a time since getting him back to the races,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first we didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d survive and then we only hoped he\u2019d recover well enough to race again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tubbs\u2019 patience and resolve have been rewarded.<\/p>\n
Fighter Command didn\u2019t race for six months after the twisted bowel and, even then, Tubbs has meticulously spaced his runs.<\/p>\n
His ninth run on the comeback trail was his powerhouse win in last night\u2019s $80,000 Beautide in Hobart.<\/p>\n
It was a demolition job as Fighter Command raced clear for a 25.9m winning margin.<\/p>\n
The win carried with it a golden ticket into the TAB Eureka with the Tasracing slot, the same ticket he was supposed to use last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was as far as we\u2019d let ourselves look, winning this race (Beautide) and knowing he was in the Eureka. Now we can look at the Eureka itself,\u201d Tubbs said.<\/p>\n
Although still far from a finished product, Fighter Command is bigger, stronger, faster and better than 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
He won the Beautide by a bigger margin and quicker time than last year. He took 0.2sec off his own 2090m track record last night, seemingly in second gear.<\/p>\n
It was third win in nine starts on the comeback trail.<\/p>\n
And it saw him firm to $4 second favourite, behind only Bay Of Biscay ($3.50), who ran second in last year\u2019s TAB Eureka and won the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire in March.<\/p>\n
Sugars, who tragically passed away on April 26, drove Fighter Command in last year\u2019s Beautide, but this time it is his \u201cpupil\u201d, Australia\u2019s premier reinsman James Herbertson.<\/p>\n
Going into the Beautide, Herbertson spoke about Sugars being his \u201cfriend, mentor and idol.\u201d<\/p>\n
It just seems right Herbertson is the man to help Tubbs finish the job Sugars started with Fighter Command.<\/p>\n
Tubbs will need to find at least one more lead-up race given the TAB Eureka is still five weeks away.<\/p>\n
Bay Of Biscay continued his build-up with a tough third in strong free-for-all company behind Inter Dominion finalist Captains Knock at Menangle last night.<\/p>\n
Fighter Command became the fourth confirmed runner with a slot in the 10-horse TAB Eureka. Bay Of Biscay (Soho Standardbreds), Hesitate (John Singleton) and Call To Order (Racing Qld) are the others.<\/p>\n
PHOTOS: Eliza Howlett<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0pieces of one of racing\u2019s most emotional and fairytale jigsaw puzzles are falling into place. A pacer the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-315907","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\/114967778730792924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315907","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=315907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}