Watchmaker: Complexity shows talent, grit in winning Champagne

The star on the last big Saturday of Breeders’ Cup prep races was, for me, Complexity.

Complexity didn’t take down the day’s biggest purse or earn anywhere near the highest speed figure. But his very impressive victory in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont did more than set up an attractive East vs. West showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with American Pharoah Stakes and Del Mar Futurity winner Game Winner, which is plenty in itself. Complexity’s performance also set off reverberations that could have a major impact well into next year.

What made Complexity’s Champagne so impressive is that he ran hard every step of the way. He shot to the lead and set early fractions of 22.51 seconds and 45.31 that were comparable to the splits posted in the six-furlong races on the undercard.

In other words, Complexity’s pace was very quick for the one-mile distance, and especially so when you consider the horse carving out those fractions had only one previous six-furlong start, at Saratoga, albeit an impressive one. And it should not go unnoticed that the horse who prompted Complexity through those initial Champagne splits wound up finishing last of 10, beaten 21 lengths.

Yet Complexity continued to roll right along and scored by three large lengths in 1:34.63, which was a solid final time.

Right here, have a look at some of what trainer Chad Brown told the New York Racing Association press office after the Champagne. “He’s just so strong,” Brown said of Complexity. “An outstanding talent. He’s just a rare horse. Just a remarkable talent.”

Brown has had a barn full of Grade 1 horses for years now. As such, he has a perspective few other trainers have. So, to see Brown gush like this, well, it makes Complexity’s future tremendously exciting to contemplate.

Of course, you can’t talk about the Champagne without mentioning the huge effort from runner-up Code of Honor. Like Complexity, Code of Honor went into the Champagne off only a front-running, six-furlong debut win at Saratoga. That is why when Code of Honor stumbled badly out of the gate and quickly found himself back to last, it looked like it was game over for him. But ever to his credit, Code of Honor launched a wide move into the stretch, a rally he courageously sustained to finish well ahead of the balance of the field.

Would Code of Honor have beaten Complexity with a better trip? Any attempt at answering that requires pure speculation. But what does not invite speculation – what was, in fact, a demonstrated fact – is that Complexity wowed after doing some real pace dirty work. And it’s not every day that you come across a young horse capable of doing both.

Saturday notes:

• The manner with which Knicks Go won Keeneland’s Breeders’ Futurity was similar to Complexity’s Champagne in that he went right to the front, set a strong pace, and won off by daylight. The difference here is that I’m not sure anyone has any idea of where Knicks Go’s Breeders’ Futurity performance came from.

Complexity winning the Champagne was no surprise. Even though all he won at Saratoga was a maiden race on closing day, he was, for many (including yours truly), the most eye-catching 2-year-old seen at that entire meet. Complexity, in fact, went off as the 5-2 favorite in the Champagne.

Knicks Go, on the other hand, was 70-1 in the Breeders’ Futurity, the longest shot in the field of 13, for good reason. After winning his debut at Ellis, Knicks Go finished a distant fifth of seven in the Sanford and a soundly beaten third of seven in the once-proud Arlington-Washington Futurity. That made him, in aggregate, the slowest horse in the race.

Was it the addition of Lasix that turned Knicks Go around Saturday? Was it the stretch-out to two turns? Was it getting loose on the lead? Was it some combination of the three? Who knows? All I know is I won’t buy into Knicks Go, and I certainly won’t take any horse who was drubbed by him Saturday seriously, until I see Knicks Go perform like that or better again.

• Knicks Go wasn’t the only mystifying result in a Keeneland Grade 1 race Saturday. Next Shares and Great Wide Open ran one-two in the Shadwell Turf Mile at odds of 23-1 and 81-1. I know it seems like I say this every week, but I can’t recall ever seeing our male turf division in such a state of disarray, and more vulnerable to the taking by European shippers of any account.

• A Raving Beauty landed Keeneland’s First Lady, running more like she did when she won the Beaugay and Just a Game, and when a very unlucky third in the Diana, and making amends for her no-show fourth in the Ballston Spa. But it wasn’t easy, even after A Raving Beauty got off setting a very slow early pace. Dona Bruja, who finished strongly and just missed by a head, ran very well in light of how up against it she was, pace-wise.

• For my money, Disco Partner’s score in the Belmont Turf Sprint was even stronger than his 4 1/2-length win margin would suggest. Disco Partner’s weakness has always been off going, and the turf he won so decisively on Saturday still had give to it, meaning it wasn’t his favorite footing.

• Defending male sprint champion Roy H, who was below his best form when third in the Dubai Golden Shaheen and second in the Bing Crosby in his last two starts, returned to his winning ways with a nearly three-length victory in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. He’s back. Or is he?

I wonder, if just a bit. Once Ransom the Moon, who had Roy H’s number at Del Mar in the Crosby but doesn’t elsewhere, came up clearly empty through the stretch, that left Roy H with only three seriously overmatched rivals to deal with. Because of that, I’m not sure you can take Roy H’s effort on Saturday as proof that he’s all the way back to his championship level.

• It seems hard to believe, but the older dirt female division might be in as desperate a shape as the turf male division. With Unique Bella retired, Elate done for the year, and Abel Tasman a massive question mark after her dismal showing in the Zenyatta, the quality of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff will lean heavily on such 3-year-old fillies as Monomoy Girl and Midnight Bisou.

Enter Wow Cat. Wow Cat beat little in Belmont’s Beldame, as weak a Grade 1 race as you will find (although the current state of the division had much to do with that), and she was 10 lengths behind the good Abel Tasman when third in the Personal Ensign at Saratoga. But Wow Cat improved Saturday, and if Abel Tasman can’t replicate her best form come Breeders’ Cup Saturday, then the door is open for Wow Cat and other second-tier older dirt females to get a piece of the Distaff.