HIS enforced absence from the saddle has obviously whetted Wendyll Woods' appetite for winners as he proved again at Sha Tin yesterday with a polished double.
Woods landed the low-grade third event with Add More (4-1) and then brought up the twosome in the seventh race with Top Practitioner (4-1 favourite) on whom he gave an impeccable display.
It was strength and patience that got Add More home in a 1,400-metre event where there was little evidence from others competing of fighting spirit and determination.
Add More battled on better than most and it took the last of Woods' vigour to get him up in a desperately tight three-way photo with topweight Speedy Runner (10-1) and Intrepid Star (16-1), who looked all but home 50 metres out.
Top Practitioner was winning only his third race with the first of those a long time ago for Neville Begg as a griffin.
But he had come down into Class Five and put in a quality run last time out at the Valley for Australian Glen Boss when Woods was still convalescing in Newmarket from the operation on his neck.