Latest news with #GregSugars
News.com.au
7 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Sweet Ideal and Keayang Zahara put Victoria's Western Districts back on harness racing map
First it was Keayang Zahara, now Sweet Ideal is putting Victoria's Western Districts back on the harness racing map. The region is famous for its dairy farming, but the great Gammalite had something to say about that back in early 1980s. Leo O'Connor's mighty Terang stayer won 94 races, including two Inter Dominions (1983 and '84), was a dual Australian Horse of the Year and the first pacer in this part of the world to top $1 million in prize money ($1,386,480). Still today, as you drive into Terang, the welcome sign says 'Terang – home of Gammalite.' • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Terang and surrounding areas have produced some nice horses since, but the hype is huge again now. Keayang Zahara, who is nearing a racetrack return, is a potential champion. She won her first 15 starts, including a string of features in Australia and NZ, before suffering her first defeat at her latest run at Menangle on May 10. The freakishly gifted four-year-old is nearing a racetrack return for the Lee and Craven clan at Ecklin South, 15 minutes outside of Terang. Keayang Zahara has made a strong return to the track, winning the Hertz Melton Trotters Free For All with Glen Craven in the sulky. A touching moment, with Craven wearing the colours of Greg Sugars on a night remembering the champion reinsman at Melton Entertainment Park. — The Trots (@TheTrotsComAu) May 3, 2025 • It's about the same distance to Camperdown, where one of Australia's exciting pacing mares is trained by veteran horseman Gary Lawlor and his son, Daryll. Sweet Ideal has won seven of her 14 starts and shown the dazzling sort of speed that will propel her into Group 1 races. Like so many in the game, the Lawlor's have had some nice horses along the way, but never a genuine star. Bad Billy has been the best. He won 18 races, including a Hamilton Cup. He contested three heats of the 2018 Inter Dominion and also ran second to millionaire pacer Colt Thirty One in the 2019 Group 2 Queensland Cup at Albion Park. Despite just starting her career, Sweet Ideal has snatched the mantle. A Mighty win! Sweet Ideal storms up the outside to claim the Lionheart Security Pace at Melton tonight for trainer Gary Lawlor and driver Darryl Lawlor! — The Trots (@TheTrotsComAu) July 19, 2025 'She's the best we've had,' Gary Lawlor said. 'Not only is the real deal, but it's so special because we've had this breed for 60 years, going back to my father, Joe. 'She's closely related to Bad Billy. Sweet Ideal is out of a half sister to Bad Billy (Lagertha). 'This mare is the best. She can do anything, stay, sprint and find plenty at the finish.' There's even a Lawlor family connection back to the great Gammalite. 'He was at our property as a foal. His mum (High Valley) was here to get in foal again with Gammalite as a foal at foot,' Lawlor said. Lawlor revealed the Sweet Ideal fairytale was almost over before it began. 'She came back from a breeding property with the mum (Lagertha) when she was just 10 days old and got pneumonia and colic,' he said. 'We rushed her to the vet where Simon (Pearce) and his wife (Alex) saved this girl's life and then cared for her until she recovered.' Sweet Ideal will be favourite to add another win in race six at Melton on Saturday night and, as always, it will be a family affair with Daryll in the sulky. 'It's a great time to have the best horse we've had. I was an electrician at Bulla (ice cream company), but retired now and can really enjoy her with Daryll and the family,' Gary said. Lawlor admits to watching on with interest as Australia's champion mare Eye Keep Smiling posted her 10th successive win and completed back-to-back Group 1 Golden Girl wins at Albion Park last Saturday night. 'I think she'll handle the step-up and follow any speed,' he said. 'She's going for a break after this race, then we'll come back for big races like the Vicbred and Breeders Crown.'
News.com.au
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Jess Tubbs to make Inter Dominion return just months after shock passing of husband Greg Sugars
JESS Tubbs will return to the scene of the greatest night of her career without her best mate and sparring partner. It was 19 months ago when Tubbs and husband, Greg Sugars, dominated the sport's 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. It was Just Believe's second successive Inter Dominion win and a night to both reflect on two years of a concerted and deliberately obsessive focus on their horses at the expense of themselves. 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's pacing final, but such is the depth of Tubbs' stable, she has star mare Rakero Rebel in the $1 million pacing final. This time she's done it alone. The Australasian harness racing industry was devastated by shock and sadness when the fit, healthy and just 40-year-old Sugars was found in a Sydney hotel room less than three months ago. He died in his sleep. 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. 'Greg was the dreamer and ideas man, I was the practical one. We complemented each other like that,' Tubbs said. 'None of this has the same meaning without him. I'm still getting used to it, everything reminds me of him. 'I've come to Queensland and I'm staying in the unit he was in last time. Nobody's stayed in it since he was here so some of his things are still here, even his face wash is in the shower. 'We are supposed to share moments like this (Saturday night). We'd consciously made a decision a few years ago to throw everything into the horses because we had such a good team, but we weren't 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. 'The saddest part is that 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 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's the hardest part, the loneliness when we were so close.' 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 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.' How and when Tubbs learned of Sugars' death was the hardest part. 'So 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. 'It became so public so quickly and there were rumours and speculation and my phone didn't 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't processed it myself.' A big team of horses, staff and owners at Larajay Farm have given Tubbs a focus and purpose through her darkest hours. 'This is what I need to do for now, but I don't know what the future holds in years to come because this is such a hard and brutal industry,' Tubbs said. 'I gave up a corporate job to go full time at this with Greg because he couldn't do it by himself, so I don't know how I'm going to cope. 'But for now the horses are my priority and we'll 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.' It's 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, alongside star thoroughbreds like Chautauqua, Prince Of Penzance, Pakistan Star and others. 'It's lovely for harness racing to be recognised and to have Sundons Gift and now 'Harry' (Just Believe's stable name) part of Living Legends,' she said.
News.com.au
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Harness racing: Champion driver James Herbertson to ponder future after Greg Sugars' passing
Australia's premier driver James Herbertson flew back to the US on Tuesday a shattered man and with a huge career decision to make. Herbertson, 24, spoke glowingly and straight from the heart about his great mate Greg Sugars at Monday's memorial service for the champion driver, who died on April 26. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 'Greg was another father, a mentor and idol … Greg, you'll never know the pedestal I had you on,' Herbertson said. Herbertson had earlier jetted back from a working holiday in the US soon after Sugars' shock passing. 'I couldn't stay in the US then. I wasn't in the right headspace to stay and had to get back to support Jess,' he said. 'Now my whole world has changed and will never be the same. 'I'm going back to finish what I started in the US. It's a chance to reset. 'To be honest, I wasn't planning on staying that long in Australia once I finished this trip, but there is so much more to consider now. 'Jess (Tubbs) will need a worker and a driver … we've all got a lot of thinking to do.' Herbertson will spend a week back in New Jersey then travel to Stockholm during the iconic Elitlopp carnival later this month. 'I'll have a week or 10 days working in a stable there and then Ewa (Justice, girlfriend) and I will have some actual holiday time in Poland and maybe another place or two. 'We don't have a fixed return date. I don't feel like putting a time on things right now, I want to play it by ear.' Herbertson drove four of the 10 winners at Melton last Saturday night, including two for Tubbs (Illawong Larajay and No Money No Honey). Tubbs has a big and impressive team of horses in work under the Larajay Farms brand she and Sugars built so quickly and successfully. Following the huge success of Kiwi Dexter Dunn and Aussie brothers Andy and Todd McCarthy, Herbertson has the credentials to become a driver in demand should he make the US home. Despite already spending a couple of weeks in the US, Herbertson still holds a 20-win lead (with 106 wins) in this season's Australian Drivers' Premiership over Queenslander Pete McMullen. Herbertson stamped his emergence on a national level when he dominated last year's premiership, finishing the season with 370 wins, 93 clear of runner-up McMullen.
News.com.au
12-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
‘The world stopped turning on April 26': Harness racing pays emotional tribute to the late Greg Sugars at Melton memorial service
Greg Sugars took centre stage at Melton one last time. The racetrack where the champion horseman drove the majority of his winners and celebrated some of his greatest moments, on Monday became the place where family, friends and the harness industry emotionally farewelled him. More than 1000 people, from all around Australia and many from NZ, gathered to hear stories of Sugars the person as much as Sugars the Hall of Fame horseman. Sugars' wife, Jess Tubbs, opened the tributes and was followed by Australia's premier driver and close friend James Herbertson, Sugars' sister, Kylie, friend and Alabar Bloodstock supremo Brett Coffey and close Kiwi friend and horseman, Gavin Smith. NZ's greatest horseman Mark Purdon flew across and other touching tributes followed from former HRNSW CEO John Dumesny, top horseman Geoff Webster, former Adelaide race caller Jim Jacques and Malcolm Wells, managing owner of Tubbs and Sugars' champion trotter Just Believe. Tubbs showed remarkable strength and vulnerability as she spoke of the life they built and the devastating loss she felt. 'After two really hard years where we focused on work more than ourselves, 2025 was meant to be our year,' she said. '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 in time.' Sugars died in his sleep on April 26. Tubbs and Sugars shared the greatest of highs with Just Believe, who took them around the world and won them 10 Group 1 races. He retired in January the second-richest earning trotter in Australasian history. 'The bond 'Harry' (Just Believe's stable name) and Greg had was incredible and I firmly believe he wouldn't have reached the heights he did without Greg,' Tubbs said. Wells added: 'Jess and Greg took us on a journey we could only dream of.' Herbertson, who flew back from a working holiday in the US, said Sugars was 'like another father, a mentor and an idol'. 'Greg, you'll never know the pedestal I had you on … the world stopped turning on April 26.' His sister, Kylie, talked of life growing-up in the outer suburbs of Adelaide with father Ross, a decorated horseman, and mother, Kerry. 'Try and all live your lives like Greg did. He lived it like he wanted and to heck with the finer details,' she said. 'And he went to places two kids growing up in Virginia could only dream of.' Gavin Smith first met Sugars in Adelaide 18 years ago when competing in the Australasian Young Drivers' Championship. 'I knew within two minutes we could be great mates. I remember when Jim Jacques (race caller) introduced all us drivers to the crowd in that series. We all shook our heads when Jim gave Greg the most lavish of intros, I looked over and that was the first time I saw that huge smile of his … I've never forgotten it.' Sugars, just 40, had already built a Hall of Fame career with wins in so many of Australasia's biggest races. He drove more than 4000 winners, including 71 at Group 1 level. Such was his impact, drivers throughout Australia, NZ, Sweden and numerous US tracks wore black armbands today or will in the coming days.
Courier-Mail
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Courier-Mail
Greg Sugars memorial service: Melton, Monday May 12, 2025
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Champion harness racing horseman Greg Sugars will today be farewelled at a memorial service at Melton, a track where he scored so many of his biggest wins. A large crowd is expected at the 12pm service, which is open to the public and will feature heartfelt tributes from Sugars' family and closest friends in the Legends Room at Melton Entertainment Park. For those unable to attend, the service will be live streamed via Sugars, 40, died in his sleep on April 25 at the height of his powers. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! The South Australian-bred horseman boasted a Hall of Fame record. He won 71 Group 1 races and drove more than 4000 winners, including wins all around Australia, NZ and even in the US. In recent years, Sugars' success with his wife and training partner, Jess Tubbs, and their champion trotter Just Believe had propelled the pair to international stardom. Just Believe won a legion of Scandinavian fans during his three-race Swedish trip in 2023. Last year, the mighty trotter raced six times in NZ for five wins and a second, including wins in the country's three biggest trotting races, the TAB Trot, Rowe Cup and Dominion Trot. Just recently, Sugars partnered the unbeaten Always Hot to win the Group 1 NSW Derby and said he was one of the most exciting pacers he had ever driven. Sugars is remembered by his wife Jess, father Ross, mother Kerry, sister Kylie and many close friends. • Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp. Originally published as Champion harness racing identity Greg Sugars to be farewelled at memorial service at Melton today
