The Pizza Man heads west for San Luis Rey

The Pizza Man came out of his fifth-place finish as the heavy favorite Feb. 13 in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Handicap in good shape, trainer Roger Brueggemann said Friday, and is back to regular galloping here at Fair Grounds.

Though The Pizza Man would be either the favorite or the second choice while walking out of his stall to race in the $300,000 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial Handicap here on March 26, The Pizza Man will be shipped to California to make his next start March 13 in the $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes over 1 1/2 miles.

The Pizza Man raced some eight lengths behind a slow pace last out at Gulfstream and made only mild headway to finish fifth, beaten a little less than four lengths.

“He cooled out from that race so fast it was almost like he hadn’t run,” said Brueggemann, who confirmed that a trip to Dubai, which had been mentioned as a possibility for The Pizza Man, no longer was being considered