THE Winter Festival at Fairyhouse has been a fine predictor of spring success recently; at last year’s meeting, there were three Cheltenham Festival winners, along with numerous others who made the frame, while it also produced the Grand National and Aintree Hurdle winners.

Those future winners may be there again, but they could be harder to find, as this year’s meeting was run on fast ground, while there was an absence of pace in a number of the feature races.