Complexity Scores First Grade 1 in Champagne Stakes
Image:
Description:
Photo: Coglianese Photos
Complexity wins the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park
Trainer Chad Brown understands how having a 2-year-old as speedy as Complexity can make a one-turn stakes a relatively simple matter.
As Brown watched Oct. 6, Klaravich Stables' Complexity ran back to an impressive gate-to-wire debut win at Saratoga Race Course by rolling to an easy, frontrunning, three-length victory in the $500,000 Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park.
By covering the flat mile in a quick 1:34.63, the undefeated Complexity also secured an all-expenses-paid spot in the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), a race Brown won last year with Champagne runner-up and eventual 2-year-old champion Good Magic .
But here's where the story gets complex.
As good as the son of Maclean's Music looked in the Breeders' Cup Challenge event, Brown is not as sure as he was a year ago that he has a bona fide two-turn runner on his hands, with the 1 1/16-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile set for Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.
"With Good Magic's pedigree and style, we were really looking forward to getting him around two turns," he said. "With this horse, we are not sure if he can handle two turns, so it's a different situation this year."
Any distance limitations aside, Brown is quite confident that in Complexity he has a horse with a special brand of talent.
"I am really proud of this horse," he said. "For a horse that has his speed, to carry it is impressive. He was bred for speed, but he's so strong and an outstanding talent, so his pedigree might not limit him. He's a rare horse, an exceptional horse."
Jockey Jose Ortiz believes Complexity should be able to handle 8 1/2 furlongs on the first Friday in November at Churchill, though the first Saturday in May might be a different story.
"I think he can go a mile and a sixteenth, but that's probably as far as he wants to go," Ortiz said.
After winning at six furlongs at Saratoga, the mile was no problem for Complexity. Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings and purchased for $375,000 at last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Complexity grabbed the lead at the start and cruised along with a length lead through opening fractions of :22.51 and :45.31. On the turn, Ortiz asked the 5-2 favorite ($7) for more speed, and Complexity drew away from his nine rivals as he opened a safe five-length lead at the eighth pole.
"When I passed the three-eighths pole, I was looking for competition. He was so relaxed. He just galloped today," Ortiz said.
Code of Honor, who stumbled at the start and was last after the first quarter-mile, cut into the lead at the end but was no threat to the winner at the wire. Three lengths behind Code of Honor, Saratoga Special Stakes Presented by Miller Lite (G2) winner Call Paul was third by a nose over Aurelius Maximus.
More distance might aid owner W.S. Farish's homebred son of Noble Mission , but trainer Shug McGaughey was not gushing over the possibility of running Code of Honor in the Breeders' Cup.
"I thought for a young 2-year-old, he ran a great race. He stumbled so bad at the start, so for him to be back where he was, eat dirt, and then to make that big run wide, I'm pleased with the effort," McGaughey said. "I'm not sure (about the Breeders' Cup). With Honor Code, he finished second in the Champagne (in 2013), and we decided not to. This year it's in Louisville, so that might make a difference. You've also got the (Nov. 4) Nashua (Stakes, G3 at Aqueduct Racetrack) at one turn right around Breeders' Cup time and the (grade 2) Remsen going around two turns (Dec. 1 at Aqueduct). I wouldn't mind running straight into the Remsen. Going a mile and an eighth, if he gets away good, I think they might all be trying to catch him."