Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
With an exultant wave of the whip and saluting to the skies Deni Roberts celebrated a memorable milestone in a burgeoning career in the sulky when she drove Dont Bother Me None to an emphatic victory in the $23,750 Remembering Blake Live Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
This gave the 27-year-old Roberts her first metropolitan-class Friday night treble, following wins earlier in the program with Steel The Show and Tenzing Bromac.
Roberts is riding on the crest of a wonderful wave and in the space of 12 days she has landed 12 winners, five seconds and one third placing from 29 drives. After Friday night’s meeting Roberts was in third place in the State drivers’ premiership table with 24 wins, 15 seconds and 16 thirds, trailing Shannon Suvaljko (33 wins) and Gary Hall Jnr (29 wins).
Roberts, whose first winner was with Leftrightgoodnight in a C3 event at Pinjarra on August 3, 2015, had an interesting drive behind Dont Bother Me None on Friday night when the New Zealand-bred five-year-old, the $2.90 second fancy, raced fiercely in the breeze while the $2.70 favourite Pradason was setting a brisk pace in the 2130m event with quarters of 30.3sec., 28.7sec. and 27.6sec. before Dont Bother Me None surged to the front 420m from home and went on to win by 8m from the fast-finishing Eldaytona ($4.20), with the final 400m taking 28.4sec. and the winner rating 1.55.
“Running those sort of times is his strength,” said Roberts. “I would have liked to have rated outside of Pradason a bit more, but when a horse is charging like that you don’t have much choice. He really fired up, but I don’t think that is a problem for him.
“He hit the front a lot earlier than I wanted to, and he didn’t really settle until turning into the home straight.”
Roberts admitted that gaining her first city treble was a thrill. “I had been close a few times, including the previous Friday,” she said. That was when Master Yossi led and was beaten by a half-head in the final stride by Onesmartfella after Roberts had won earlier in the program with Vulcan Star and Dont Bother Me None.
Roberts went close to a remarkable feat of winning with all her five drives on Friday night. Apart from her three winners she drove Street Hawk and Minstrel into second place, with Street Hawk beaten by a neck by Alcopony, and Minstrel finishing a half-length behind Glenledi Chief.
Dont Bother Me None gave champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond their fourth winner of the night, following earlier wins with Steel The Show, Tenzing Bromac and Glenledi Chief.
Roberts now has driven Dont Bother Me None three times for two wins and a second placing. The Bettors Delight stallion has had all of his 40 starts in Western Australia for 15 wins, ten placings and $132,815.