Next stop Santa Anita for Stopshoppingdebbie

AUBURN, Wash. – With her mission at Emerald Downs now complete, Stopshoppingdebbie will embark on a fall campaign at Santa Anita, trainer Tom Wenzel confirmed this week. The undefeated 4-year-old Stopshoppingdebbie will make her next start in either the Grade 1, $300,000 Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 27 or the Grade 3, $100,000 L.A. Woman Stakes on Oct. 4.

Both races are on dirt at Santa Anita. The Zenyatta, at 1 1/8 miles, is a prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 31, while the L.A. Woman serves as a tune-up for the $1 million BC Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 1. Wenzel said both races are currently on the table for his 9-for-9 stable star, though he and owner Jerre Paxton are leaning toward the Zenyatta.

“In talking with Mr. Paxton, I think we’re going to try to keep the filly going long, and that means the Zenyatta, the Grade 1. That’s the thinking right now,” Wenzel said.

Stopshoppingdebbie won the $65,000 Emerald Distaff a week ago to remain unbeaten, but it wasn’t easy. Goin to the Window, one of her stablemates, moved up to join Stopshoppingdebbie at the top of the lane, and the two battled tooth and nail to the wire. Stopshoppingdebbie inched away late to prevail by three-quarters of a length. She earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.

“It was a good effort,” Wenzel said of Stopshoppingdebbie, who went straight to the lead in the Emerald Distaff and was able to set a relaxed pace. “I think this mare might be a better horse off the pace, I really do, but the way it was, with the pace and other competition, it’s kind of hard not to put her there sometimes. But I was happy with her; she was steady the whole way.”

Goin to the Window finished behind Stopshoppingdebbie for the eighth time in eight meetings. Another Paxton-owned stablemate, Blueberry Smoothie, finished third, bringing to an end a remarkable two-year period of dominance by the Paxton fillies. Seven times in the past two years, they have taken down the top three placings in a stakes. The only exception was this year’s Hastings Handicap, when Madame Pele finished second and Blueberry Smoothie and Goin to the Window settled for third and fourth.

All told, the Paxton fillies have earned $381,900 of the $430,000 offered in their races over the past two years, or 89 percent. Wenzel said all three are likely to be retired this winter.

“Jerre told me that ‘Window and Blueberry Smoothie are both heading to Yakima, and then in the early part of the winter, they’re probably heading back to Lexington to become mothers,” Wenzel said. “Jerre likes to run them up until their 4-year-old year, and then he usually puts them in the broodmare band if he likes them.”

Paxton and Wenzel may have another top filly on the horizon. Herculette, by Indian Charlie, won a maiden race Aug. 23 by nearly nine lengths. Paxton paid $230,000 for Herculette at a Keeneland all-ages sale in January 2013.

“We liked her quite a bit going into the race,” Wenzel said. “She’s shown good things in the morning, and we’re hoping she might be as good as some of the ones we’ve had lately. The way she got away from ‘em down the lane makes us think we’ve got a shot to be part of the stakes program here next year.”

Quarter Horses in spotlight

The highlight of Emerald Downs’s limited Quarter Horse schedule – the $54,000 Bank of America Emerald Championship Challenge – takes place Sunday. Nine horses will vie over 440 yards for a share of the purse and a guaranteed berth in the $350,000 Challenge Championship on Oct. 17 at Prairie Meadows. But it could boil down to a two-horse race between Chicks Special Angel, the likely favorite, and Ambush Alley.

Chicks Special Angel was claimed for $5,000 at Portland Meadows in January 2012, shortly after launching what would grow into a nine-race winning streak. But her run of brilliance ended last September when she lost as the 3-5 favorite in the Emerald Challenge Championship after breaking slowly, and she’ll be looking to make amends when she takes a new, three-race win streak into Sunday’s race for trainer Juan Sanguino. She has won three of her four starts at Emerald Downs.

Ambush Alley is 2 for 3 this year against stellar competition at Los Alamitos, where he won an allowance race July 19, and Albuquerque, where he finished second behind Call My Hero, one of the fastest Quarter Horses in New Mexico, early this month. Ambush Alley won and Chicks Special Angel won Aug. 17 trials without being asked for their best, and they are likely to put on a speedy show.