2 days ago
Robbie Dolan will sing at memorial service for fellow jockey Nikita Beriman's late dad Dennis
Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Robbie Dolan has the voice of an angel.
So it seems entirely appropriate that he will sing his own song Stay With Me at a memorial service for the late father of the Irishman's fellow jockey Nikita Beriman.
Former trainer Dennis Beriman passed away late last month at age 78 after battling a respiratory illness and it turns out that he was a big fan of Dolan, as both a jockey and a singer.
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'His wishes were to be scattered in the ocean with his wife (Sandy),' Beriman said about her dad.
'It'd be a real special moment. His last favourite song was 'Stay With Me' by Robbie Dolan so my family requested me to ask Robbie if he would sing while we scattered the ashes.
'I love Robbie but I actually felt a little weird asking him. I said to him, 'Robbie it's perfectly OK to say no, don't say yes just because you're my mate'.'
Beriman need not have worried. Dolan is happy to sing at the memorial service, even though a date and venue are yet to be determined, with most of the family having to come up from Victoria.
'I don't know how Nikita heard my song but she obviously heard it and showed it to her father and he enjoyed it,' said Dolan, who progressed to the top 24 in The Voice in 2022 before being eliminated in the sing-offs.
'It's pretty cool actually to know that was his favourite song before he died.
'It's an honour to do something like that. It's very special for the family.'
Beriman, 39, said the memorial service would likely be held near her dad's local pub, the Golden Beach Tavern at the Sunshine Coast.
'He lived with me for the past four years,' the Group 1-winning jockey said.
'The hardest part for me was that my Dad literally adored my daughter (five-year-old Ella) and my daughter absolutely loved her Poppy, she was a Poppy's girl.
'Even when he was in his hospital bed I got my Mum to send me through some videos of Ella saying 'I love you Poppy'.
'They used to have this little saying between each other, like Dad would say 'Hey Ella, guess what?' and she'd be like 'I know, you love me'.
'All he did was continually mention her and I think for me that's the hardest part because she doesn't even mention his name now.
'It's like it hasn't happened. She's just shut off and that's her way of dealing with it.'
Beriman was meant to ride in the Group 1 Tattersall's Tiara last weekend on the John Dann -trained Adiella, however the four-year-old was scratched after banging her leg in the paddock in the days leading up to the 1400m feature for fillies and mares.
'I rode with Dad's necklace on, although I'm not superstitious or anything,' Beriman said about her four rides last Saturday at Eagle Farm.
'It would've been special to win on Break Free (which finished runner-up in the first race) given the fact that was Dad's favourite song and he had it as his ringtone for literally the last nine years.
'He loved everyone. Dad would not say a bad word about anybody, he'd always find the good in people.'
Dennis Beriman, who was a trainer at Warrnambool for years before shifting to Queensland, was a typical old-school dad who was immensely proud of his kids but rarely praised them because that's not what most fathers from that generation did.
One exception was when Nikita won her only Group 1, on Tears I Cry at Flemington in the 2007 Emirates Stakes (1600m), which was also trainer Ciaron Maher's first major success.
'That was the first time he said 'I'm proud of you' and I said 'don't start that s--t now',' Nikita recalled.
'What sticks out for me is when I won on Hearts Are Better in the 3YO Jewel (on the Gold Coast) this year and I came home and he said, 'you looked real good on that, darl'.'
