#Ferns Lock

Another blank week of jumps racing has forced me, not unreluctantly I should add, to widen the scope of the column this week. The latest prolonged cold snap might not have been as severe as some of those in my living memory - December in 1981 in Newcastle in my second year at Uni living in a soon-to-be-condemned terrace in Elswick with three others…

Many a true word is said in jest as the saying goes and I was reminded of that maxim when reading a tweet early last week that said there would be more Festival clues at Fairyhouse last Tuesday than there had been at Cheltenham the previous weekend. Given the star entries at Ascot's upcoming weekend fixture, I doubt the poster also had it in the…