The Pizza Man heads to Fair Grounds for winter

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Pizza Man, who scored a popular victory Thursday in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup, will leave Del Mar on Monday, bound for New Orleans, where he will spend the winter at Fair Grounds, trainer Roger Brueggemann said Friday.

“He seemed to come out of the race really well,” Brueggemann said from Kentucky, where he now is based for much of the year. “He’ll head to Fair Grounds, and then we’ll start deciding what to do there. We don’t have any set plans yet. Anything should be possible.”

In each of the past two winters, The Pizza Man got lengthy vacations. He was off for eight months prior to his 2014 debut at Arlington and six months prior to his 2015 debut at Churchill Downs.

Brueggemann will be based at Fair Grounds this winter. He said all the horses he currently has in Kentucky will be sent there, including “some 2-year-olds I’m really high on.”

“Hopefully, one of them will replace The Pizza Man when he’s done,” said Brueggemann. “He is special. He’s really fun to be around.”

The Pizza Man, a 6-year-old gelding, now has won 16 times in 26 starts for earnings of nearly $1.9 million for owners and breeders Richard and Karen Papiese of Midwest Thoroughbreds. The Pizza Man won four times in six starts this year, most notably in the Arlington Million. He subsequently was a close second in the Shadwell Turf Mile and fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, both at Keeneland.