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Woods rails at stable noise pollution

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Trainer Sean Woods has 'written off' this season because of noise from a construction site next to his stables, which he says has sparked an exodus of owners from his yard and caused him to lose all confidence in his runners.

Woods snared a much-needed double at Sha Tin yesterday, and credited a five-day respite from work on the expansion of the Hong Kong Sports Institute. The trainers claim noise from the billion dollar-plus development has plagued he and neighbouring trainer David Ferraris for the past three years at their state-of-the-art stables, built for the 2008 Olympics.

Work at the Sports Institute's indoor tennis and badminton courts is expected to be completed within a month, but both Woods and Ferraris, who claims to have lost 'millions of dollars' and half of his stable because of the disruption, say the damage has already been done.

'I've written the season off and it's not fair to people who are betting, they should know,' said Woods, whose brace took him to just eight wins this season, after he notched 18 last term.

'I've given up betting, because I can't be confident about how the horses will run, but there are people out there backing our horses and when they lose they're blaming me, or they're blaming the jockey, but the truth is that the blame belongs somewhere else.

'This is the first time that for four or five days that there's been no construction, we've just been so lucky that there was the bank holiday on the Wednesday, plus Easter Friday, Saturday and Sunday.'

Woods sent around eight horses yesterday for two winners - Brothers In Arms and Diamond Knight - plus three placegetters.

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