Last call for Wenzel fillies Goin to the Window, Blueberry Smoothie

AUBURN, Wash. – After swimming upstream against unbeaten stablemate Stopshoppingdebbie for the past two years, Goin to the Window and Blueberry Smoothie will finally get some relief from their nemesis when they start in Sunday’s featured eighth race at Emerald Downs. Yet win or lose, it will be the end of the line for both – the 4-year-old fillies will be retired following the race and head to Kentucky to begin second careers as broodmares.

Had they come along at a different time, Goin to the Window and Blueberry Smoothie might have been remembered as two of the best fillies in Emerald Downs’s history. But the 9-for-9 Stopshoppingdebbie essentially reduced them to foils. They were the Washington Generals, always showing up with an entertaining-but-losing effort. It was always Stopshoppingdebbie who got her picture taken.

When he assessed his barn before the 2013 meeting, trainer Tom Wenzel didn’t see much difference between Stopshoppingdebbie, who is by Curlin, and Goin to the Window, who’s by Tapit. Both were impressive to the eye, and both had been working forwardly.

Blueberry Smoothie, on the other hand, was always the least talented of the three, Wenzel said. She’s by Giant’s Causeway, and all three are homebreds for Jerre Paxton’s Northwest Farms.

“I wasn’t sure which of the two was the better horse,” Wenzel said of Stopshoppingdebbie and Goin to the Window. “I always knew Debbie was a little more stable and calm about things mentally. Window could be quirky, especially at the starting gate. But they were very, very similar in terms of God-given talent. I think Debbie has more smarts, a little more heart and determination – all the things that make a really good racehorse.”

Horsemen say horses know when they win. Margo Lloyd, who helped develop Stryker Phd, the hero of this year’s Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs, said the late-running Stryker Phd would return to the barn like a conquering hero, even when he was reeling off four successive runner-up finishes in 2013. Stryker Phd thought he had won, Lloyd said, because he was a length in front two jumps past the wire.

Stopshoppingdebbie also has tended to thrive after victories, Wenzel said, while Blueberry Smoothie has seemed indifferent to her plight; she delivers the same workmanlike performance every time. But the persistent losing took a toll on Goin to the Window, who has finished second six times in races won by Stopshoppingdebbie.

“Goin to the Window got discouraged late in the year last year,” Wenzel said. “She tailed off for one or two races, but this year, she’s been solid all the way through. She’s gotten tougher from that standpoint. But both she and Blueberry Smoothie have been troupers all the way through. I don’t think Smoothie ever got bummed out about anything.”

Heading into their final race, the Wenzel pair has combined to finish in the money in 22 of 23 starts while earning $237,035. Not bad for the second string. Each filly boasts a stakes victory – Goin to the Window captured the Angie C Stakes, and Blueberry Smoothie won the Barbara Shinpoch Stakes, both as 2-year-olds in 2012, before Stopshoppingdebbie got started.

“Blueberry Smoothie is a spicy little thing; she’s got a little attitude all the time,” Wenzel said. “She’s tough as nails. She has the least raw talent of the three, but she’s a big-time trier in the afternoon. Goin to the Window can be a little anxious at times, but they have both come into their own. They’ve had to chase Debbie around here for two years. Everybody talks about her, but you look at a horse like Wando Woman, who came down here and couldn’t get close to our mares, and then she goes back to Canada and runs a pretty decent second up there. These fillies are all pretty solid.”

Goin to the Window and Blueberry Smoothie will reside at Greenfield Farm in Lexington, Ky. Paxton has decided on Candy Ride as the first breeding partner for Blueberry Smoothie. He has yet to make a call on Goin to the Window, and he will also have to find a mate for Stopshoppingdebbie, whose career is expected to wind down quickly following a fall campaign at Santa Anita.

Stopshoppingdebbie is being readied for the Grade 3, $100,000 L.A. Woman Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs Oct. 4. If she passes that test, Paxton and Wenzel have not ruled out a start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 1.