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By Ray Hickson

In the space of a few months, trainer Matthew Smith has seen a completely different side to three-year-old Lyles and he hopes the gelding takes his new attitude into his first-up assignment at Rosehill on Wednesday.

It was an inglorious debut from Lyles back in mid-October where he was beaten six lengths by Manos but that’s not the horse that returned to Smith’s stable after a break.

On the back of two impressive trial wins, and with his more focused demeanour, there’s a sense of expectation from Smith ahead of the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1200m).

“He just needed a bit of time to work it out, he was a nervous horse in his first preparation and was doing things wrong,’’ Smith said.

“He’s come back a bit bigger and stronger but moreso mentally he’s come back better.

“I really can’t fault him, he’s a nice horse in the making.”

Lyles, $3.60 with TAB on Tuesday, has won both barrier trials this time around by comfortable margins and Smith said he was particularly pleased with how he travelled and then put his rivals away in the second of them.

With barrier one he expects Adam Hyeronimus to either lead or stalk the leader and sees no reason why he won’t produce a similar performance on race day.

Lyles wins a trial at Rosehill on February 14

“I think I’m just seeing what everyone else is seeing,’’ he said.

“He’s got a really good action, an efficient action, he’s a positive horse who likes to jump and travel and both his trials have been excellent

“He wasn’t doing that last time in, he was a bit all over the place, so it was good to see him put it all together and do things right.”

Stablemate Final Reset might be a five-year-old but Smith said he’s another horse that has scope to improve from a mental perspective so he’s doing a good job to have won three of his 16 starts.

He was a winner over 2300m at Newcastle a month ago then ventured to Doomben and ran a close second over 2200m, he’ll drop 3kg into the TAB Handicap (2400m).

“He’s an improving stayer, he’ll run any trip so 2400m won’t be a problem for him,’’ Smith said.

“He’s still learning what it’s all about, he’s still green, and he’ll improve with racing.

“For a horse that’s been around a bit he’s still on the new side but he’s going in the right direction.”

Meanwhile, Smith is likely to give Idle Flyer her shot at Saturday’s Group 1 Surround Stakes (1400m) at Randwick in preference to her engagement at Rosehill.

“She’s got 60kg and a bad gate or do we go in on the same weight as everything else and hopefully draw a better gate and see what happens. She works like a pretty nice horse,’’ Smith said.

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s meeting at Rosehill