The Pizza Man wins on biggest stage yet in Arlington Million

It’s a cute name, The Pizza Man, catchy and memorable, and hey, look at that, the horse can run a little bit, too. Won the American St. Leger on the Arlington Million card in 2014. Not bad.

But this is more than a cute story about the little Illinois-bred who could. The Pizza Man is for real, and on Saturday, racing against the best competition he’s ever faced, The Pizza Man showed it, winning the 33rd running of the Arlington Million by a neck over Big Blue Kitten.

Supremely confident in their horse, co-owner Rich Papiese and trainer Roger Brueggemann shot for the Million when they could have gone for a St. Leger repeat and were rewarded with a rousing victory.

Papiese runs Midwest Thoroughbreds with his wife, Karen, and they rose to become the leading owners by wins in North America the last several years, but those mounds of victories came mainly in claiming races. Now, out of nowhere, and with two homebreds, the Papieses have struck gold, first winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Work All Week and now taking down the Million.

For Papiese, who grew up on Chicago’s south side and lives in northern Indiana, the win at Arlington was especially sweet.

“To do it at home in a race like this, that means a lot,” Papiese said.

Brueggemann’s rise has been even more startling. In the early 1990s, he was training Quarter Horses on the side while working as an auto mechanic near St. Louis. He came to Chicago and based at Hawthorne with a string of claimers, and it was not until he hooked up with Midwest that Brueggeman had more than allowance horses.

“Rich gave me the horses, and that means everything,” said Brueggemann.

Florent Geroux, who also rode Work All Week, won the Million in his first ride. Geroux, the French native whose star has risen quickly the last two seasons, granted that the Breeders’ Cup came on a bigger stage, but this was at his home track where he started his U.S. career.

“It was probably more emotional,” Geroux said.

But Geroux’s emotion piloting his Million mount leaned more toward disappointment than joy. Racing on a course turned firm to yielding by heavy rain during and after the Secretariat Stakes, Geroux said he was riding The Pizza Man basically every step of the Million and not getting much response.

“I had no horse the whole way,” Geroux said. “I didn’t even know if we’d finish, but when I put him in the clear, he just took off.”

The Pizza Man raced ninth past the stands the first time, but who knows how fast the pace might have been? The first quarter, posted in 21.79 seconds, defied belief for a 10-furlong race on a yielding course, and the later splits – 46.75 and 1:10.84 – also seemed implausible, if less so. Carving out the pace was Shining Copper, a rabbit for Big Blue Kitten, but as he had done in the United Nations Stakes, Shining Copper held firm far longer than a pacemaker’s place.

As pressing Maverick Wave backed through the field, Shining Copper kicked clear, jockey Chris Emigh’s excitement briefly rising as he fended off the midstretch inside challenge of Up With the Birds. On the far outside, Big Blue Kitten had reached contention but could find no final spark, while between horses – after coming wide round the far turn – The Pizza Man reached for the wire. A long, narrow gelding with a big stride, The Pizza Man does not do more than necessary to win, but from the furlong pole, he looked like a winner, and The Pizza Man, for the 15th time in 23 starts, delivered.

Final time for the 1 1/4 miles on yielding ground was 2:02.20, and The Pizza Man, bet steadily throughout the wagering, paid $13.80 in capturing his first Grade 1. Behind Big Blue Kitten came Shining Copper, who had 1 1/2 lengths on Up With the Birds. Elleval was fifth, followed by Wake Forest, Belgian Bill, the 3-1 favorite Slumber – who was shut off badly into the far turn – Bookrunner, Quiet Force, Triple Threat, Legendary, and Maverick Wave, who was vanned off the course.

The Pizza Man is by English Channel and out of the Lear Fan mare I Can Fan Fan. A 6-year-old, he only now has hit peak form, and Geroux said it was in his first start this year, a win in the listed Opening Verse, when he felt more power from The Pizza Man than during last year’s races.

Brueggeman has seen the change in morning training at the Churchill Downs Training center – and in the shape of the gelding’s body.

“He works well on dirt now, and he never used to do that,” Brueggeman said. “He’s filled out, put on weight. He’s even getting the hang of shipping.”

The Pizza Man went off his feed when he shipped to Woodbine last year, but he has grown comfortable traveling away from home. The trip to the Breeders’ Cup Turf, at Keeneland this year, would be short for a horse based in Louisville. The Pizza Man earned an automatic berth in the BC Turf on Saturday through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In Program, but the gelding is not BC eligible and would have to be supplemented for $100,000. Work All Week was supplemented to the BC Sprint, and that worked out well, and Papiese said it was probable The Pizza Man would soon be made eligible to the BC Turf.

And at this point, who could say with confidence he might not just win it?