Commanding a shot at redemption

THE pieces of one of racing’s most emotional and fairytale jigsaw puzzles are falling into place.

A pacer the late Greg Sugars described as his “project horse”, and who was denied a start in the world’s richest harness race a year ago when almost died of a twisted bowel, has booked his spot in this year’s $2.1 million TAB Eureka.

There could be no more fitting or emotion-charged win than Fighter Command beating his rivals at Menangle on September 6.

Only now is Sugars’ widow and Fighter Command’s trainer Jess Tubbs allowing herself to think about it.

“After everything that happened last year with the horse, we’ve very much taken it one step at a time since getting him back to the races,” she said.

“At first we didn’t know if he’d survive and then we only hoped he’d recover well enough to race again.”

Tubbs’ patience and resolve have been rewarded.

Fighter Command didn’t race for six months after the twisted bowel and, even then, Tubbs has meticulously spaced his runs.

His ninth run on the comeback trail was his powerhouse win in last night’s $80,000 Beautide in Hobart.

It was a demolition job as Fighter Command raced clear for a 25.9m winning margin.

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.

“This was as far as we’d let ourselves look, winning this race (Beautide) and knowing he was in the Eureka. Now we can look at the Eureka itself,” Tubbs said.

Although still far from a finished product, Fighter Command is bigger, stronger, faster and better than 12 months ago.

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.

It was third win in nine starts on the comeback trail.

And it saw him firm to $4 second favourite, behind only Bay Of Biscay ($3.50), who ran second in last year’s TAB Eureka and won the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire in March.

Sugars, who tragically passed away on April 26, drove Fighter Command in last year’s Beautide, but this time it is his “pupil”, Australia’s premier reinsman James Herbertson.

Going into the Beautide, Herbertson spoke about Sugars being his “friend, mentor and idol.”

It just seems right Herbertson is the man to help Tubbs finish the job Sugars started with Fighter Command.

Tubbs will need to find at least one more lead-up race given the TAB Eureka is still five weeks away.

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.

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. 

PHOTOS: Eliza Howlett

Jess Tubbs with Fighter Command