Jason Lyon continued his good recent run at Narrandera, scoring another winning double on Saturday.
Lyon didn’t have to wait long for his first winner, guiding the Rob Wellington-trained Super Sunny Seeya to a good first-up victory in the second race on the program, the 1000m Maiden Plate.
Starting a $5.50 chance, the three-year-old son of Rubick ‘surprised’ connections with how well he raced on the day.
“He won all right, but I wasn’t sure how he would go,” Lyon said,
“The penny hasn’t dropped with the horse; he gallops okay, but when he gets up to his top speed, he looks around, and I wasn’t too sure how he’d handle the pressure of race day.
“Still, he jumped well, got a nice run in behind then, and it was a bit of a surprise.”
Lyon has ridden and worked some terrific horses over the years, including Santa Ana Lane, Warning, Alcopop, Glass Harmonium, and Red Element, so he admitted that Super Sunny Seeya was a bit of an enigma.
“I usually know if they are all right; I’ve been riding for nearly 25 years now and ridden in every state and territory, and I’ve worked 20 or more multiple Group One winners,” Lyon said.
“Still, when I gave him a couple with the whip in his trial, he didn’t really lengthen, but it was a nice run at Narrandera, and yeah, it wasn’t a strong race, but he put them away, so we’ll see how he improves.”
Riding for Mitch Beer, Lyon made it a running double when winning the 1600m Class Three Handicap on Nossenko.
The pair raced wide but Nossenko ($7) was strong through to the line for connections.
“She has a bit of a bad rap because of her barrier manners, and she can play up, and she had a lot of gear on,” Lyon said.
“Mitch said she can be slow away, and he said, ‘Even if she steps away slowly, you don’t want to be back, so just stride forward’, and I’m glad he told me that.
“She was slow away, but he knew the horse and track better them me, and we kept improving forward, and even though we were three wide, she got into a winning position; it was a pretty tough win.”
With Tuesday’s meeting at Albury transferred to Narrandera, Lyon will back up on the same track, hoping to continue the excellent winning form.
The 42-year-old jumps aboard four chances and will ride the Heath Maclean-trained The Big Shamrock ($2.60) in the 1000m Maiden Handicap and last-start winner Impatient Miss ($7.50) in the 1000m Class One Handicap.
Lyon jumps aboard the Craig Weeding-trained Let’s Get Festive ($4.60) in the 1600m Maiden Plate and the Martin Stein-trained Cracking Dawn ($13) in the 1600m Benchmark 58 Handicap.
“Narrandera has been good to me; I’ve ridden a few winners there,” Lyon said.
“I’ve got a couple of chances again, and Cracking Dawn always runs a cheeky race; Marty calls her the ATM as he paid $2000 for her, and she’s won over $100,000.”
“The Big Shamrock was good the other day; it was a first-up run on a heavy track, and it got taken on, but it looks a good chance, and Impatient Miss will run all right.”
It’s set to be an excellent seven-race program at Narrandera, with the first race jumping at 1.35 pm.
For Narrandera’s results from Saturday, click here.
For Narrandera’s fields for Tuesday, click here.
