Sale of Complexity share spices up Saratoga selected yearling sale

A chance to invest in breakout freshman sire Complexity adds intrigue to Fasig-Tipton’s upcoming Saratoga selected yearling sale.

Fasig-Tipton announced in late July that a share in Complexity, who stands at Airdrie Stud, will be offered at public auction during the selected sale. The offering will take place at the start of the sale’s second and final session, at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Airdrie will handle consigning duties.

Through July 25, Complexity led not only the freshman sire earnings and winners list, but also the overall North American 2-year-old sires list by both those metrics. He is the sire of 12 winners from 18 starters overall, including Grade 3 Sanford Stakes winner Mo Plex, Victoria Stakes winner Mensa, and Astoria Stakes third-place finisher French Horn.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever had an Airdrie stallion get off to a more promising start,” Airdrie president Bret Jones said. “Complexity was a brilliantly talented racehorse and he has been making the case since his first foals hit the ground that he could be an equally successful sire.

“The word from Ocala was just so strong from the very beginning, and it has been wonderful to see that early promise evolve into these incredible results. To be not just the leading freshman sire in America, but the leading overall sire of 2-year-olds is extraordinary, and we are further emboldened by the incredibly positive reports we continue to receive on his yet unraced 2-year-olds.”

Complexity, by Maclean’s Music, won the Grade 1 Champagne as a juvenile. At 4, he finished a close second in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes before winning the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 110, the third-highest number of 2020. Overall, Complexity won five of 10 career starts, and earned three triple-digit Beyers.

Shares in several young stallions have been offered over the past two years, typically attracting a good bit of interest. In April 2022, Airdrie stallion Upstart was on the upswing, with Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes winner Zandon and graded stakes winner Kathleen O. emerging as favorites for the spring classics from his second crop. A share in Upstart, who was standing for $10,000 that season, sold for $450,000 during the Keeneland April horses of racing age sale.

Later that summer, a lifetime breeding right to Girvin, who by then had sired a stakes winner from his first crop while standing at Ocala Stud for $6,000, was offered during the Fasig-Tipton July horses of racing age sale, going for $150,000. Girvin subsequently joined the Kentucky stallion ranks, moving to Airdrie for 2023.

A 2.5 percent interest in Flightline was offered at the 2022 Keeneland November breeding stock sale days after he concluded an unbeaten career by winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic and retiring to Lane’s End Farm. The fractional interest was sold for $4.6 million, and Flightline’s introductory fee was subsequently set at $200,000.

Last summer at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, a share in prominent young sire Not This Time, representing a 2 percent interest in the stallion, sold for $2 million. At the time of the sale, Not This Time’s fourth crop was on the track and he was coming off his first top-10 finish in the general sire ranks, aided the prior year by Eclipse Award champion Epicenter.

The sale of the share in Not This Time was not factored into the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale results, setting the precedent for how sale figures will be reported this year. While the share in Complexity, who stood for $12,500 in 2024, will not affect the sale results, his second-crop yearlings have the potential to, with his stock clearly rising. Complexity is represented by one second-crop yearling chosen for the boutique selected sale, and three cataloged in the New York-bred yearling sale, which follows Aug. 11-12.

Last year, Complexity’s first-crop yearlings averaged $83,583, from 84 sold, more than 6.6 times that same $12,500 fee. Earlier this year, the 43 2-year-olds from Complexity’s first crop averaged $101,076 during the breeze-up season. And at this summer’s first yearling sale, the Fasig-Tipton July auction, five yearlings by Complexity averaged $132,000, with a pair sold for $250,000.