Dennis (24) joined his father Tony and uncles Ray, Martin and Joe in partnership in November last year, starting a new chapter for the long-established Dennis brothers training quartet.
While wins have been thin on the ground, there is no doubting the consistency emerging from the Woodlands partnership.
‘‘We've had a slow start but we've run a lot of placings,'' he said.‘‘We've won $65,000 with only two winners - for the most part, the horses are pretty consistent.''
The traditional setup, where each brother looked after a couple of horses each, has changed slightly. Robert's presence means the partnership can increase the number of horses in work.
‘‘Before I came back, they had two horses each and they usually only had six or seven in work, but we've got up to 12 at one stage. It's more of a group decision on everything,'' he said.
‘‘We've still got nine in work at the moment and eight of them have raced so far this season.''
Seven of those horses will line up over the next three days. The Bishop and The Barmaid will head to Riccarton tomorrow for Saturday's meeting, and five runners will take their place at Wingatui today.
The best chances for the five-pronged partnership come with The Music Guru (race 2) and The Gallant Girl (race 4).
The Music Guru meets a small maiden field over 1200m, and Dennis will be happy if the track stays around the dead4 mark.
The daughter of Gallant Guru finished eighth fresh-up at Riverton on Saturday after her summer campaign ended at Omakau in February.
‘‘She won a jumpout at Wyndham three weeks before Riverton and it probably just flattened her a wee bit,'' he said.
‘‘We took her there, Shankar [Muniandy] got off, he didn't thrash her and said she didn't really handle the ground. She's a hard horse to get fit and get the weight off. I'd say it's tidied her up nicely for tomorrow.''
The Music Guru will face a maximum of only six other rivals and stablemate The Gallant Girl is in a field of just six runners in the rating 75 1200m.
‘‘She's come of age this year,'' Dennis said.
‘‘Her last start she was only a length from what's now a group 3 winner [Coulee]. Her form looks very good. She loves the good track, she can handle the dead although she'd prefer it good, and she loves to be on the rail.''
The Gallant Girl does have the top weight of 60kg, although Gosen Jogoo's 2kg claim brings that down to 58kg.
‘‘She's been very consistent all season and we can't ask much more of her. She's got a big weight to carry for a small horse, though.''
The Grinner (race 7) is a confidence runner, and needs the run to suit over 2200m. The 6yr-old has drawn well in barrier 5, and has been given a slight freshen-up since his 12th at Wingatui in March.
Dennis found The Believer and The Theme quite hard to split in the rating 65 1400m.
‘‘The Believer had the blinkers on for the first time in a while last start and made him quite keen.
‘‘The Theme went out for a week as well and was brought up reasonably slowly. She goes all right a bit fresh.''
