Stablemates try once more to turn tables on Stopshoppingdebbie

AUBURN, Wash. – Undefeated and only occasionally tested, Stopshoppingdebbie will put her perfect record on the line Sunday at Emerald Downs in the $50,000 Boeing Handicap, a one-mile test for fillies and mares that attracted only three other entrants. First post for the 10-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.

Stopshoppingdebbie ran her record to 7 for 7 with a half-length victory in the Washington State Legislators in her last start. Trained by Tom Wenzel, Stopshoppingdebbie dispatched five rivals in that race, but now the pool of willing challengers has dried up almost completely. Two of the Boeing entrants, Goin to the Window and Blueberry Smoothie, are Stopshoppingdebbie’s stablemates, leaving only Madam Pele, trained by Jim Penney, to be saddled by someone other than Wenzel.

Stopshoppingdebbie has been rock-solid in the first two starts of her 4-year-old campaign, even as her Beyer Speed Figures have gone into a holding pattern. While she broke the stakes record in the Washington State Legislators, running 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.20, she was assigned a Beyer of just 82, a tick below her career best. The Curlin filly has posted Beyers from 78 to 83 in each of her past six starts.

If Stopshoppingdebbie is indeed running in place, it could create an opening for Goin to the Window, a hard-charging Tapit filly who would surely have more than one stakes victory if not for her dominant stablemate. Goin to the Window has finished behind Stopshoppingdebbie six times over the past two seasons at Emerald. She made a threatening run at the top of the stretch in the Washington State Legislators but couldn’t get by.

The third Wenzel starter – all three are homebreds for Jerre Paxton’s Northwest Farms – is Blueberry Smoothie. She’s a lot like Goin to the Window, with a maiden victory, a single stakes victory, and a stack of seconds and thirds behind Stopshoppingdebbie. Blueberry Smoothie, by Giant’s Causeway, has earned more than $100,000 while never finishing within two lengths of Stopshoppingdebbie.

Madam Pele’s upset chances might be compromised by a slow pace. Stopshoppingdebbie led gate to wire in the one-mile Irish Day Handicap last June and could get an easy lead Sunday if that’s how Wenzel and jockey Rocco Bowen decide to play it. But Madam Pele does have a stakes victory at the distance – in the restricted Comcast SportsNet Stakes in September – and could make her presence felt in the late stages. She’ll try a new rider Sunday, with Leslie Mawing stepping in for Gallyn Mitchell.