Stopshoppingdebbie much the best in Hastings Handicap

AUBURN, Wash. – Stopshoppingdebbie extended her unbeaten streak to six races Sunday with an easy victory in the $50,000 Hastings Handicap for fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.

Stopshoppingdebbie was bred by her owner, Jerre Paxton of Yakima, Wash., to be a first-class filly, and so far, so good. By Curlin from the stakes-winning mare Taste the Passion, Stopshoppingdebbie swept the 3-year-old filly stakes program at Emerald Downs last summer, winning all four stakes for trainer Tom Wenzel, and on Sunday, she opened her 4-year-old campaign with her best effort to date.

After breaking from the outside post in an eight-horse field, Stopshoppingdebbie and jockey Rocco Bowen advanced steadily nearing the turn and then burst to the lead with a powerful five-wide move past the quarter pole. She finished the six furlongs in 1:08.38 to prevail by four lengths and pay $3.40 as the prohibitive favorite.

Madame Pele, a stakes winner at Turf Paradise in her last start, closed smartly to finish second. She was followed by Blueberry Smoothie, Goin to the Window, Finding More, Quizzical, early pacesetter Ms. Sutherland, and She’s Stella Marie.

How good is Stopshoppingdebbie? She beat up on many of the usual suspects in 2013, but the field Sunday included some prominent new shooters in Quizzical, who was fourth in a restricted stakes race at Santa Anita in her previous outing, and Finding More, a stakes winner from Louisiana making her first start since October.

Stopshoppingdebbie pushed her career earnings to $156,273, and Wenzel was duly impressed with her effort.

“She’s in a different league, this filly,” Wenzel said en route to the winner’s circle. “You can do pretty much anything you want with her, and she just wins, you know?

“I thought it might be a little bit of a horse race today, I really did,” Wenzel said. “If she hadn’t have gone wide, she could have run 1:07 and change.”