Horse Racing News by Marty McGee

Demarcation rallied from last on Saturday to capture the Grade 3, $121,250 Mineshaft Handicap by a head over favored Mission Impazible.

Expansion, with Gerard Melancon up, emerged from out of nowhere to pull a 32-1 upset in a three-horse photo Saturday in the 24th running of the Grade 3, $125,000 Fair Grounds Handicap in New Orleans.

Mucho Macho Man and jockey Rajiv Maragh were prominent from the start Saturday before turning back all comers to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

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Racing officials at Fair Grounds are expecting a terrific field for their next big race on the Triple Crown trail, the Risen Star Stakes, with two major hopefuls scheduled to ship in from south Florida to make their 3-year-old debuts in the Grade 2 race.

Elliott Burch, a Hall of Fame trainer who won the Belmont Stakes three times and hailed from a family of revered horsemen, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia in Newport Hospital in Rhode Island. He was 86.

Joe Bravo was beaming as he came into the Gulfstream Park winner's circle after capping a sweep of Grade 3 turf stakes Sunday aboard longshot Justaroundmidnight in the ninth running of the $100,000 Marshua's River at Gulfstream Park.

Stakes with $100,000 purses come in all degrees of difficulty, but it would be hard to find one much tougher or deeper than what Gulfstream Park will offer Sunday with the Grade 3 Marshua's River.

Final Mesa proved much the best following a five-month layoff Wednesday when dominating the opening-day feature of the 2011 Gulfstream Park meet, the Grade 3, $100,000 Old Hat Stakes.

Drosselmeyer, unraced since winning the Belmont Stakes last June, has had two easy three-furlong breezes at Payson Park and could make his return to racing within a couple of months, said trainer Bill Mott.