The Pizza Man a Turkey Day play in River City Handicap

On Turkey Day, who’s craving Pizza?

The popular gelding The Pizza Man is the highweight in the Grade 3, $100,000 River City Handicap, race 11 on the holiday Thursday program at Churchill Downs. He is assigned to carry 124 pounds – including jockey Shaun Bridgmohan – and gives 2 to 10 pounds to the rest in the 1 1/8-mile event on turf.

The Pizza Man enjoyed his best season of racing in 2015, when the Midwest Thoroughbreds homebred won four stakes, highlighted by a victory in his home state of Illinois’s biggest event, the Grade 1 Arlington Million. This year, the 7-year-old Roger Brueggemann trainee snapped a skid of four unplaced efforts with a victory in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes at Woodbine. Most recently, he was fourth in Woodbine’s Grade 1 Canadian International on Oct. 16.

Are You Kidding Me is seeking his third consecutive graded stakes win after a productive fall at Woodbine for trainer Roger Attfield, first winning the Grade 3 Durham Cup and then the Grade 2 Autumn Stakes. Both races were contested on Tapeta, but the horse is a Grade 2 winner on turf.

Pleuven has had a productive year since being transferred to Phil Sims in Kentucky, winning two stakes, including the Grade 2 Wise Dan in June at Churchill Downs. In May, he finished a close second in the Opening Verse on the Churchill turf. Pleuven most recently finished sixth in a strong edition of the Grade 1 Shadwell Mile at Keeneland.

The Pizza Man, by English Channel

Last 3 Beyers: 101-101-98

◗ The class of the field, he has won 12 stakes, including two Grade 1 events, with a bankroll of more than $2.1 million.

◗ He won the 2015 Opening Verse on the Churchill turf, but is unplaced in two other starts here, including a fourth in the Wise Dan.

Are You Kidding Me, by Run Away and Hide

Last 3 Beyers: 98-101-98

◗ This will be his first start on the Churchill Downs turf; he was fifth in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on the main track in June.

◗ He is the second-highest-weighted horse in the field at 122 pounds.

◗ A stalker, he drew the rail under Alan Garcia.

◗ He would achieve millionaire status with a win.

Pleuven, by Turtle Bowl

Last 3 Beyers: 102-91-95

◗ Finished sixth, beaten 2 1/4 lengths, in the Shadwell, which produced the first-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. His Beyer Speed Figure of 102 for that race is the top last-out number in the field.