Breeders' Cup Juvenile: Game Winner, Complexity to meet

Undefeated colts from two of the most powerful barns in the sport headline the 15 horses pre-entered in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, to be run Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

Game Winner, trained by three-time Juvenile winner Bob Baffert, is 3 for 3, with a victory in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 29. Complexity, trained by Chad Brown, is 2 for 2, with a victory in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes on Oct. 6 at Belmont Park. Last year, Brown won the Juvenile with Good Magic, who entered that race as a maiden coming off a second-place finish in the Champagne.

Complexity has shown speed in his two wins, but Brown is confident the horse can relax if need be.

“He’s always been a tremendous-moving horse, very efficient action,” Brown said after the colt breezed last weekend. “He’s easy on himself. He’s really push-button. He’ll do whatever you want him to do. He’s nice and relaxed, and that’s the way we want him.”

Baffert has won the Juvenile with Vindication (2002), Midshipman (2008), and New Year’s Day (2013) and finished second in four other runnings, including last year with Solomini. This year, he has the probable favorite in Game Winner, a son of Candy Ride who has won his three races by a combined 11 3/4 lengths.

“The distance will not be a problem for him,” Baffert said. “I think he’s getting better and better. I’m pretty excited about him. I think he’s pretty special.”

Code of Honor, trained by Shug McGaughey, who won the Juvenile with Rhythm in 1989, was second in the Champagne after stumbling at the start and likely will be the third betting choice behind Game Winner and Complexity.

The top three finishers from the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland – Knicks Go, the 70-1 upset winner, Signalman, and Standard Deviation – were all pre-entered. Brown is adding blinkers to Standard Deviation’s equipment.

There were no European-based runners pre-entered in the Juvenile, which is limited to 14 starters.

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There were two somewhat surprising pre-entrants. Topper T, an Iowa-bred who has won 2 of 5 starts, was recently purchased by Adam Wachtel, Gary Barber, and Pantofel Stable and transferred to Bill Mott. Derby Date, a maiden trained by five-time Juvenile-winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas, was pre-entered but was ranked 15th by the Breeders’ Cup selection panel, meaning he would need one defection to get into the field.

He may get it as Trophy Chaser, fifth in the Champagne, was pre-entered in the Juvenile but is expected to run in the Street Sense at Churchill the same day, according to trainer Juan Carlos Avila.

Final entries and the post-position draw will be Monday.

In alphabetical order, and with probable jockey assignments, the Juvenile pre-entrants are: Complexity (Jose Ortiz), Code of Honor (John Velazquez), Dueling (Manny Franco), Game Winner (Joel Rosario), Gunmetal Gray (Flavien Prat), Knicks Go (Albin Jimenez), Mind Control (Irad Ortiz Jr.), Mr. Money (Gabe Saez), Signalman (Brian Hernandez Jr.), Standard Deviation (Javier Castellano), Tight Ten (Ricardo Santana Jr.), Topper T (TBD), Trophy Chaser (TBD), and Well Defined (Mike Smith). Derby Date (TBD) is an alternate.

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