Four winners on one night for Roberts

West Australia’s leading reinswoman Deni Roberts achieved a metropolitan milestone at Gloucester Park on Friday night landing four harness racing winners.

And it could so easily have been five.

The stable driver for the husband and wife training team of Greg and Skye Bond, Roberts saluted on three odds on favorites Minstrel ($1.45 fav), Lusaka ($1.65 fav) and Carana ($1.32 fav) for Team Bond.

However, it was her drive on the Michael Young trained $81 bolter Getn Wiggy Withit (American Ideal) that highlighted her growing mastery in the sulky.

Roberts managed to land Getn Wiggy Withit four back along the pegs from its outside front row draw however the son of American Ideal was giving the leader more than 35 metres with 500 metres to travel.

Somehow Roberts managed to extricate Getn Wiggy Withit from behind tiring horses before weaving a passage through the field and loomed ominously around the final bend.

Getn Wiggy Withit stormed home to grab Callmewhatuwant on the line with a half head margin separating the pair.

GETN WIGGY WITHIT REPLAY

Roberts conceded she didn’t harbour any thoughts of victory with 500 metres to travel.

“I thought I was too far back,” Roberts said.

“But when I started weaving through them I thought I was a chance when we straightened,” she said.

Not surprisingly, Roberts rued the quirky racing manner of three-year-old filly Turn The Page who poked her head in front in the shadows of the post in the WA Oaks before going down by a short half head to August Moon.

“She pricked her ears again as soon as she got to the front and then switched off, it’s a trait of hers and it goes to show how green she still is having had only nine starts,” she said.

The daughter of trainer Sonia Zucchiatti, Roberts took a gap year between school and university 10 years ago and has been full time in harness racing ever since.

But it wasn’t always that way.

“I got my licence to driver in trials at 16 and I had no real interest in driving in races, so I tried a few different things before finally getting my licence to drive in races when I was 19,” she said.

Roberts break out season having driven 163 winners to date coincides with her promotion to stable driver for Team Bond.

“I’ve been working for Greg and Skye for four years and when their foreman Ryan Warwick moved on early this year I became the stable driver,” she said

For complete race results, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink