Deni's Inter Dominion Delight

DENI Roberts remembers the first time she felt the buzz of the Inter Dominion.

Roberts was a young girl competing in the pony trotting races when she arrived at Gloucester Park with mother, trainer Sonia Zucciatti, and immediately something was different.

The crowd was huge, the track was buzzing like the young and impressionable Roberts had never seen it.

That memory has been stirred this week as the now 29-year-old Roberts prepares to drive in her “real” Inter Dominion series at Newcastle on the complete other side of the country to her Western Australian base near Perth.

“I’m from a harness racing family in that Mum trained horses and so did my uncle (Aaron Skalecki),” she said.

“Like so many of us kids in WA, I found my way into the pony trots early. I was only eight when I started.

“I was taught all about the Inter Dominion, how it was the biggest thing in the sport (Down Under) and all the history behind it.

“I’m just old enough to really remember the end of Im Themightyquinn’s career and how big a role he played in the Inter Dominion (winning three finals in 2011, ’12 and ’13).

“To think I’m going to be part of it myself now is such a buzz.”

It’s a buzz when brewed quickly.

Roberts, stable driver for the hugely successful Team Bond operation (husband and wife Greg and Skye Bond), only found two weeks ago she would be contesting the iconic series for the first time.

“It wasn’t on the radar at all, really,” Greg Bond said. “We did nominate the horses (Minstrel and Tenzing Bromac), but more just to keep options open. I’m glad we did.

“When Leap To Fame was taken out with his issues and then we heard Swayzee (dual NZ Cup winner) wouldn’t be running either, we quickly made the call to give it a crack with our two and booked their flights.”

Fittingly, it marks a return to the state (New South Wales) where Roberts eventually chose harness racing as her career path.

“I’d done the pony trots, but graduated school and took six months off to live in Sydney and work in restaurants as an 18-year-old. I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said.

“After the six months, I was missing home and horses. I went back, worked with Mum and then got a job with Bob Fowler’s Allwood Park and that was that.”

Roberts’ rise to driving stardom, which has earned her the nickname “Duchess Deni”, was a long way off back then.

“Yes, I had seven years at Allwood Park, but it’s a breeding farm, so most of my time was really nurturing and educating the young horses,” she said.

“I didn’t take the traditional path of going straight into a stable, but I’m grateful for that. I got to really learn about horses. I was with them from the start of their lives until they became racehorses.”

Word was spreading about Roberts’ talent and Team Bond’s then stable foreman and lead driver, Ryan Warwick approached her with a job offer one day at the races.

“I actually turned it down,” Roberts said. “It was great to get the offer, but Bob (Fowler) had horses with (trainer) Peter Anderson and I’d just started doing some work for him with the race horses and wanted to give it a go.

“It wasn’t quite what I hoped, so when Ryan (Warwick) came to me again six months later, I snapped it up and that’s when I started working for Greg and Skye. It’ll be five years ago next May.”

Despite her potential, Roberts had to really earn her stripes.

“I sure did and that’s fair. I might have been fourth or fifth stringer as far as drives went in the stable when I started,” she said. “I wasn’t even the top junior driver, they had Bailey McDonough working for them and he was a junior, too. Then there was Ryan and Dylan (Egerton-Green) as well. I was thankful for any drives I got in that line-up.”

Roberts looks back on the John Higgins Memorial final at Gloucester Park on July 23, 2021 as her fork as the defining moment of her career.

“There’s obviously been bigger wins since, but that was the race that gave me confidence and belief and myself and I’m sure others, too. It changed everything and the opportunities grew a lot because of it,” she said.

“I won the heat on the horse, he drew one in the final and Ryan (Warwick) was suspended so they left me on. He drew (barrier) one and I thought he’d just lead and win … but everything changed when I got crossed at the start.

“I didn’t panic. I waited and made my run a lap and bit out and got up to win by head.

“It was the first time I really felt I could do this, I could drive against the best and win good races. It gave me so much confidence.”

It planted the seed for what happened in February, last year. Warwick decided to go his own way and, Greg and Skye Bond, threw their faith behind Roberts to become stable foreman and number one driver.

“It’s a great example of how challenging someone can take them to another level,” Greg Bond said.

But Roberts admits the first three months in the “big gig” were daunting.

“I put too much pressure on myself. It wasn’t just the driving, but having to manage people for the first time in my life as well,” she said.

“I was about three months before I got into the groove and then things started to take off because we had such a great team of horses.”

Roberts recently topped 700 career wins and is locked in a titanic tussle with champion Gary Hall Jr for the top WA driver with a month of the 2024 remaining.

She drove her first Group 1 winner just six months after taking the big gig on the Team Bond-trained Vegas Strip in the Golden Slipper on September 29, last year.

Roberts rocketed that Group 1 tally to five with three wins at the highest level this month alone. It started with Christopher Dance’s WA Derby win on November 1, followed with Minstrel’s WA Cup win a week later and continued when the Canadian-owned Aardiebytheseaside won last Friday night’s WA Mares’ Classic.

“It’s been pinch yourself stuff, that’s for sure,” she said. “And now I roll into my first Inter Dominion with two lovely drives, including Minstrel, who gave me that biggest win of my career in the WA Cup.

“He can win it. He can win the Inter Dominion final. He’s never raced better and his work last Saturday was just sensational. He’ll love the four races in two weeks and the big track at Menangle (1400m) will be ideal for him come final time.

“Don’t see Tenzing Bromac short either. He’s an underdog with a chance. You’ve never seen the best of him yet, but he goes toe-for-toe at home with Minstrel. I think he’ll really stamp himself in this series.”

The Inter Dominion moves from Newcastle on Friday night to Bathurst for the second round of qualifying heats next Wednesday (December 4).

Then it’s back to Sydney’s home of harness racing, Menangle for the last round of heats on December 7 and the pacing and trotting finals on December 14.

Remarkably, given the success of females in Australia, Roberts will be trying to become just the second female to drive an Inter Dominion pacing final.

Natalie Rasmussen is the other and she boasts five finals, four with the great Blacks A Fake (2006, ’07, ’08 and 2010) and a fifth aboard Ultimate Sniper in 2019.