Many in racing shared Kim Bailey's hopes that a move to Cheltenham would bring resurgence in his training career. Instead, with only three winners so far, this has been a miserable season for him and it was not improved by events last weekend.

With Longshanks missing the cut for the Grand National, Bailey was absent from Aintree for the first time in more than 20 years. Since he won the National with Mr Frisk, the meeting has been Bailey's favourite but he sought consolation in a weekend of point-to-pointing. Even this, though, did not go entirely to plan.

On Saturday, he helped his daughter, Pandora, make her riding debut in a charity race at Barbury Castle. She finished an admirable fourth but Bailey had to watch the race won by his ex-wife Tracey, Pandora's mother.

The following day, Bailey was to make his debut as clerk of the course at his local Cotswold meeting but he awoke to thick snow and the card was abandoned at 8am. When the snow cleared by race time, Bailey wearily awaited calls from angry trainers.

“Strangely,” he told his website, “the first to ring said he had nine runners and that he'd walked the course himself and seen no snow. He complained bitterly but he didn't disguise his voice too well.” It was, of course, the local colleague Bailey now calls “The Thin Farmer”, the slimmed-down Nigel Twiston-Davies.

If Sam Thomas has a rival for jump jockey of the year awards, it is surely Robert Thornton - especially after yesterday. Racing UK presenters at Ludlow were initially bewildered to see Thornton punch the air, and wear the ear-splitting grin he normally reserves for Cheltenham winners, after victory in a humble mares' hurdle.

This, though, was Thornton's 100th of the season, a landmark he had begun to believe he was fated to miss after scoring 97 and 99 in previous seasons.

“I managed to get a 12-1 on shot beaten at Plumpton on Monday,” he reflected ruefully. “I'd started to think it might be 99 again, so this means a lot.”

There is poignant contrast in the situations facing the two senior statesmen of the jumps weighing-room today. While Tony Dobbin takes his final bow at Carlisle, a retirement he has stage-managed personally, Mick Fitzgerald lies in an Oxford hospital awaiting further neck surgery and indefinite recuperation. Sadly, the 37-year-old may now have retirement thrust upon him. Dobbin, who will be 36 next month, took his decision pragmatically, not least through an accumulation of heavy falls. At his local track, the novice chase at 3.20 has been renamed in his honour and the Cumbrian crowd will trust that Nicky Richards, another of their own, has found him a farewell winner in Ballyvoge, who is likely to start favourite.

This weekend's racing is modest at best, which might explain why Newbury is offering an unusual incentive to potential racegoers - the chance to find a new partner. During Saturday's jumps meeting, themed as “Countryside Love Day”, the pre-parade ring pavilions will be staging speed-dating sessions run by a company called Muddy Matches. Given the hectic divorce rate in racing, it might be especially appealing to the training fraternity.

Ever thought the interior of Sandown Park resembles an airport? Then you are plainly in good company. The makers of Love Actually adapted the Sandown lobby to represent Wisconsin airport and, this week, Matt Damon has been at the Esher track filming scenes for his next movie, Green Zone. This time, Sandown's Surrey Hall is an airport in Iraq.

It has been a familiar refrain from Jonjo O'Neill this winter and now there is statistical evidence to back him up - most of his massive string is not very good. To judge by the ratings system adopted by the Racing Post, Paul Nicholls has 44 horses rated at 140 or above in his care, O'Neill a paltry seven.