Hawthorne: Mister Marti Gras, The Pizza Man clash in Carey

STICKNEY, Ill. – Mister Marti Gras’s fourth-place finish Aug. 31 in the Grade 3 Washington Park Handicap at Hawthorne is looking better with time. Willcox Inn, the Washington Park winner, came back with a good third last weekend in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, while third-place Hattaash scored sharply last week in a high-end allowance race on the Hawthorne main track. But even an in-form Mister Marti Gras might find The Pizza Man difficult to contain in the $75,000 Robert F. Carey Memorial Handicap on Saturday at Hawthorne.

Six-year-old Mister Marti Gras, a horse that can handle about any surface, is the 122-pound starting highweight in the Carey. The Pizza Man gets in at 120 pounds, but his eight turf wins – from just 12 grass starts – are the most in the field, and The Pizza Man has won both his races on Hawthorne’s grass course.

Nine were entered in the Carey, carded at 1 1/8 miles on turf, and unlikely to be run under anything like the radical conditions that prevailed last Saturday in the Hawthorne Derby. Heavy rain turned the Hawthorne turf course boggy that night, and while the grass will be slow to dry out – if it ever does this late in the year, plus there are showers in the forecast – ground at least decent should prevail. Handicappers will appreciate that, especially since the Carey offers plausible betting options to anyone who does not fancy the top two.

The Pizza Man, though, is going to be tough, albeit at odds probably not nearly as generous as his 4-1 morning line. Still just 4, The Pizza Man is back with Hawthorne-based trainer Roger Brueggemann, who had him for his first eight starts, six of them wins, before Tom Amoss took over this year, allowing The Pizza Man to make early-season races at Fair Grounds and Churchill. The Churchill start was a near-disaster, with The Pizza Man nearly going down in heavy traffic, but other than that, The Pizza Man has been his usual ultra-consistent self. He was just up Sept. 21 to win the Illinois Owners Stakes at one mile, and Saturday’s longer distance is a mark in The Pizza Man’s favor.

Mister Marti Gras had previously run so well on Arlington Polytrack that his Washington Park showing was surprising, but Mister Marti Gras has raced only twice since May, and with post-Washington Park works, he might be set to move forward in the Carey.

Tazz and Mr. Vegas will provide the pace, and if either slips loose, or both are permitted to dawdle, they are capable of sticking around to the finish. Warbird rapidly improved early in the summer for trainer Wayne Catalano, but his form has flattened out. Burn the Mortgage seems unlikely to run right back to his last-start peak race, while Potomac River, Francois, and especially Soul Sacrifice do not appear quite good enough.