The death of the fit, healthy and immensely popular Sugars has left the tight-knit harness racing industry in a fog of disbelief as he had emerged as one of its brightest lights at a time when one has never been more needed.
He had matured into one of Australasia’s best big race drivers but it was the emergence of champion trotter Just Believe over the last three years that thrust Sugars and Tubbs on to the world stage.
That included two extended campaigns in New Zealand and a trip to Sweden, where Sugars and Tubbs were treated like rock stars at the famous Elitloppet meeting.
While Just Believe didn’t win in Sweden it was still a career highlight for Sugars who reined over 4000 winners and won over A$40 million ($43m) in stakes.
Sugars spent much of 2024 in New Zealand with Just Believe and Better Eclipse.
Last May 24 he enjoyed one of the greatest nights ever by a visiting horseman as Better Eclipse and Just Believe won the Auckland and Rowe cups respectively.
While Sugars’ popularity and place at the top table of harness racing were never in doubt in Australia, his time here made him New Zealand’s favourite Australian reinsman.
What endeared him to so many was his obvious love of the horse.
When Just Believe retired this year Sugars spoke about how he missed his equine mate, how a perfect afternoon would be buying a six pack of beer and sitting in the retirement paddock just hanging out with the champion who took him around the world.
Sugars would spend much of his time when campaigning in New Zealand with close friend and fellow horseman Joshua Dickie. Like so many Dickie was struggling to process the news.
“I can’t believe it,” Dickie said.
“We was the ultimate professional on the track, so talented and hard working.
“But off the track we would let his guard down and was a lot of fun. He was a great guy and the word I’d use to describe him the most is loyal.
“We just miss him, he was our friend.”
Sugars is from a famous harness family, with his father Ross a trainer. So too is Tubbs and the pair had ascended to be the glamour couple of Australian harness racing.
Away from the personal tragedy and brutal shock of his loss for those closest to him, his death will leave a crater-sized hole on the harness racing landscape.
Sugars was the embodiment of what is good in racing: skilled, polite, respected for his integrity, and with a deep love for the horse.
In his famous driving colours with stars emblazoned across the chest he was every inch the struggling code’s “Captain Australia”, a man to be aspired to.
He was the hero horseman harness racing needed, who tragically went to bed on Anzac Day and never woke up.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
