Shane Dye got on the scoreboard yesterday as the jockey helped Almond Lee Yee-tat maintain and even improve his place as the season's leading trainer with a double. Dye steered home Figs to win the opener in easy fashion and help Lee rack up the 100th winner of his career. He then guided short-priced favourite Champion Pioneer home two races later to make up for his unlucky effort on opening day. The pair gave Lee five for the season, having provided at least one winner at each of the three meetings conducted, but he was not getting too excited about that. 'Actually, I think I'll photocopy the trainers' table and frame it,' he laughed. 'I'm sure there will be a day when I need to have some proof of this!' While Lee said his confidence in Figs grew only after the easy time the gelding enjoyed in the opening 400m of the first race, Dye said he had expected to get a soft lead. 'Cheerful Happiness was the only other runner with early pace and he isn't as quick as Figs, so I thought he'd drop in behind me where he did,' Dye said. 'When they left us alone, that was the difference and I knew he had to run well. It's hard to be enthusiastic about a horse winning off a 28 rating, but that's his second win for Almond, who has got him going well, and if the circumstances are right I suppose he could win another race.' Figs posted the extraordinary time of one minute and 34.4 seconds for a Class Five winner, or 1.5 seconds faster than standard for the grade, but it merely advertised just how firm the track had been presented and heralded fast times all afternoon. Gerald Mosse does most of the riding for Lee and had a grim look on returning to scale after finishing second on One Eye Jack behind Champion Pioneer in the third race for a stable quinella, but Lee explained the circumstances. 'Actually, Champion Pioneer was not originally going to run in this race today and One Eye Jack was going to be my only starter,' said Lee. 'But Champion Pioneer didn't have a hard run last week, actually he was unlucky, so when the club only had six entries for the Class Four mile, I decided to put Barracuda and Champion Pioneer in it. 'The winner has been a gradual improver with racing but I've left the one-eyed blinker on him even though he seems to be doing things right now.' Dye said that unlike the stop-start race last week, everything fell in to place for Champion Pioneer this time. 'He got some speed and tracked up into the race, everything was just perfect for him and he's done the job well,' Dye said. 'I'm sure that going a little bit further will suit him too.' Century of winners Yesterday's double has taken Almond Lee to this many wins in his career: 101
