The Pizza Man To Take Final Bow In Arlington Million?

By Matt Hess

You wouldn’t know it if you lived in the Chicagoland area, but Saturday will be the one day all year that all eyes in the horse racing world will be focused on Arlington Park for the 35^th running of the Grade I Arlington Million.

This year’s edition is shaping up to be memorable, even though the defending winner, Mondialiste, will not be coming stateside to defend his crown.  Memorable not only because of the competitive field that is shaping up, but also because it may be the last time Illinois’ own The Pizza Man takes to the Arlington turf.

Though he is certainly not in his best form after finishing a disappointing second in last month’s Grade III Stars and Stripe, his effort that afternoon may have been better than it looked.  With Florent Geroux back on board, The Pizza Man had to close into a slow pace for the second race in a row and took the lead briefly down the stretch before being passed by hard-charging Keystoneforvictory, under Julien Leparoux.

The 1 ½-mile race may have been just a furlong too long and cutting back to 1 ¼ miles, in this third race off a layoff… (more)