Unfortunately Sari Mareis repeated her tricks on Wednesday, planting herself in the stalls and refusing to race despite the best efforts of Denis and Rob Hornby to get her where she needed to be. She will now be destined to undertake barrier trials before she takes to the track again. Brilliant Riposte ran a really encouraging ten furlong race after over 320 days away from the races - finishing only four lengths from second in 7th from 13 runners. Michael Pitt ran into a few traffic problems and caused some too - to the dismay of the stewards - but turning in Brilliant Riposte had more to give, and horse and jockey will gain a lot from the experience on a tight track. On Friday Saumur headed up to Uttoxeter and went well under Jonny Burke, but she was a bit too careful with her hurdling which meant she was stretching to keep up with a strong field into the last half mile. The front three had all hurdled more fluently than Saumur, which told as they kicked away down the home straight and she could only finish a remote fourth behind some good opponents. This evening Ray Styles's colt Sheila's Showcase heads down to Salisbury for a Class 4 handicap at 7.15, on a track where he showed such promise on debut last summer.