As the 42-year-old trainer prepares to take on two runners – What A Serve and Van Nostrand – in one of the feature races at Melton on Saturday night, the first person who would normally wish her luck won’t be there.
Sugars admits it is still “unthinkable” that her younger brother, champion driver Greg Sugars, is gone. Greg died suddenly in his sleep, aged just 40, in April this year.
“You can’t explain the shock and how it messed us up,” Sugars said of herself and her parents, Ross and Kerry.
“I don’t know how to put it into words. For the better part of 38 years, Greg and I saw and spoke to each other every day. He was a constant presence.”
“We were close as kids, but at the same time exceptionally competitive with each other.”
Sugars said training a team of 12 horses in Shepparton with her parents has been a pillar of strength during the toughest of times.
“That’s the thing about horses: They rely on you day in and day out and you have to show up to take care of them,” she said.
“Life goes on and we have to do that too, but the hardest time now is going to the races and Greg is not there because I always look forward to catching up with him there.”
Sugars will race a quarter of her 12-horse stable at Melton on Saturday evening. What A Serve and Van Nostrand in the Vicbred Platinum Homegrown 2YO trotting final and pacer Momentum Shift in race five.
“Van Nostrand is the better of my two runners in the Homegrown. He had a few ‘running issues’ in his first start, won well in his second run and was a tough run off the leader last time,” Sugars said.
“It’s not too bad being pulled out the back (gate 12). It’s got some bottom and some oomph too.
“I put Kerryn (Manning) on What A Serve. She has ridden a bit for me before. She (What A Serve) has a bit of early speed and continues to run handy races, but this will be tough.”
Momentum Shift was rewarded for a string of consistent runs with a final start win at Shepparton.
“He earned it. He knocked on the door,” Sugars said. “He keeps going wide and that happened again this week (gate six), but he is a bit of a sit sprinter and has a chance if he gets the right kind of run.”
Sugars’ move to Shepparton two years ago, mainly to train for owner Frank Jessup, has seen her take on the biggest team of her career.
“I’m used to having three or four horses working at most, but Frank said we could train some of our own horses there, along with his, and we have up to a dozen. Eight are Frank’s and four are mine,” she said.
“It’s just mom, dad and me, a family business.”
It has been Sugars’ busiest and most successful season with 128 starters, good for 16 wins and 33 placings.
The stable star is three-year-old trotter Ijustcalldtosay, who won his first three starts in May and June and has extended that to five wins, including a heat of the Need For Speed series, and four placings from sixteen starts.
Through Adam Hamiltonfor Harness Racing Victoria
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