Latest news with #RakeroRebel
News.com.au
16-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Harness racing: James Herbertson thrilled to see ‘gentleman' trainer Eddie Tappe finally has star horse
Premier driver James Herbertson will have one eye on Melton while he chases glory at Albion Park on Saturday night. Herbertson will drive star Victorian mare Rakero Rebel in the $1m Inter Dominion final and is also part of the Australasian Young Drivers' Championship on the same night. While many of the regular horses he drives will race at Melton on the same night, none are as exciting as emerging trotting star Im Bobby. Herbertson is thrilled that after 45 years in the game, Im Bobby's veteran hobby trainer Eddie Tappe has found a star. Tappe's patience on so many levels has been rewarded. Firstly, to get a horse of his talent and then for Im Bobby to mature into the potential feature race player he is now. 'Eddie's a gentleman. He's one of those lovely, hard working blokes you're thrilled to see find a horse like this,' Herbertson said. 'He's had some nice ones go through the classes, but Im Bobby is headed towards the big trotting races. 'I'm glad he didn't go to this (Brisbane) Inter Dominion, but come next year, I'm confident he'll be in it and other top trotting races.' Herbertson would know. He's driven Im Bobby eight times for five wins, two seconds and a third. The 70-year-old Congupna-based Tappe, who trained and drove his first winner in 1979, has waited more than five years and 80 starts for Im Bobby to grab some serious attention. It's come in spades this season with six wins and seven placings from just 15 starts and especially with the six-year-old's past two sparkling wins at Melton then Menangle. Im Bobby will chase a hat-trick in the 1720m trotting free-for-all at Melton on Saturday night. With Herbertson away, Im Bobby will have his eighth different driver in his past 15 starts with junior driver Tamsyn Potter taking the reins. She's driven him twice for two third placings. 'He's a nice horse on the track, but a real handful off it … and I mean a handful,' Herbertson said. 'He's as crazy a horse as I've seen in the parade ring and preparing to race, that's why Eddie's done such a great job with him and shown such patience. 'The talent has always been there, but we've had a plan to slowly build him up and drive him conservatively while he learns the ropes. 'It's paid off. Look how impressive he's been his past couple of wins.' Despite drawing outside the front row (gate seven), Im Bobby is $2.60 favourite against five previous Inter Dominion contestants on Saturday night. The other Melton feature is the pacing free-for-all (race three) where the Jess Tubbs-trained Fighter Command will continue his build-up towards the $2.1m TAB Eureka from an outside draw (gate seven). The four-year-old will then head to the $80,000 Beautide in Hobart on August 2 where a win will secure him the Tasracing slot in the TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 6.
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
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Victorian pacer Fighter Command chasing Eureka slot via The Beautide in Tasmania
Star pacer Fighter Command will bypass the Queensland riches to focus on a Tasmanian pathway towards a spot in the world's richest harness race. Just as he did last year, the four-year-old will target the $60,000 Beautide in Hobart on August 2 for his ticket into the $2.1m TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 6. The winner of the Beautide gets the Tasracing slot in the TAB Eureka and Fighter Command is eligible because he was bred and foaled in Tasmania. 'We didn't get an invitation as such to the Rising Sun (Albion Park on July 5), so we'll focus on the Beautide again,' trainer Jess Tubbs said. Fighter Command, who was scratched just days before last year's TAB Eureka with a life threatening twisted bowel, has only raced five times since for two wins and two fourths. • 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! He will take another important step towards the TAB Eureka in a fascinating Nevele R Stud Pace (1720m) from a back row draw (gate 10) at Melton on Saturday. Standing in his way is the exciting The Narcissist (gate eight), who is unbeaten in eight starts since switching to the powerhouse Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin stable. Although Fighter Command won't head north, Tubbs is still going with one, maybe two of her stable stars. The definite is star mare Rakero Rebel, who looks the main threat to pre-post favourite Eye Keep Smiling in the $150,000 Group 1 Golden Girl at Albion Park on July 19. Rakero Rebel will sharpen up for Queensland when she drops back to racing her own sex from gate six in the eight race at Melton on Saturday night. 'Providing she goes as well as we expect, I have to take her,' Tubbs said. 'Better Eclipse is the other possible raider. He's got a Melton trial this week and probably another next week and then I'll make the final call on him. 'I had to turn him out again because he just wasn't himself in a couple of runs back, but he seems better now.' In Tubbs' mind is how well Better Eclipse has performed in Queensland previously, including winning the Group 1 Sunshine Sprint in 2022. Better Eclipse also won two heats and finished second in another before running second in the 2023 Brisbane Inter Dominion final behind the great Leap To Fame. Queensland has been a happy hunting ground for Tubbs in general. She scored her first Group 1 training success with Momentslikethese in the 2021 Queensland Oaks. The other Melton race on Saturday night with big Brisbane implications is the Yabby Dams Trotters' Free-For-All where Arcee Phoenix resumes from a break. Chris Svanosio's six-year-old scored his biggest win in the $NZ600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge on April 4 and is vying for Inter Dominion favouritism with star Kiwi pair Oscar Bonavena and Bet N Win.
