As Stopshoppingdebbie's streak mounts, so does the pressure

AUBURN, Wash. – Ask Tom Wenzel about pressure and he turns the conversation away from his stable star, unbeaten filly Stopshoppingdebbie, and toward the other horses in his barn – the ones in dire need of a victory, the ones whose owners want to know why their equine star can’t run as fast as she can.

Wenzel said training Stopshoppindebbie has been a relatively easy assignment. She’s sound, she’s eager, and she’s fast. She has been a pleasant character around the barn, Wenzel said, and it doesn’t hurt that the 4-year-old filly has a sterling pedigree – she’s by Curlin, out of the stakes-winning Wild Again mare Taste the Passion.

But pressure can reveal itself in mysterious ways, and when Stopshoppingdebbie guns for her eighth consecutive victory in Sunday’s Boeing Handicap at Emerald Downs, as many eyes will be on Wenzel as they are on his prized filly, at least figuratively so. From here on out with Stopshoppingdebbie, as long as her winning streak is intact, Wenzel’s every move will be scrutinized.

Bonnie Jenne and Greg Gilchrist can relate. Jenne trained Ladyledue, a speedy filly who won her first five starts – all stakes races at Emerald Downs – before a stumble at the starting gate led to a 15-length loss in start No. 6. Gilchrist went much further with Lost in the Fog, a brilliant sprinter who won his first 10 starts while crisscrossing the nation from Gilchrist’s base in Northern California.

“I think the pressure is the pressure you put on yourself,” Gilchrist said of managing an undefeated horse. “Winning two in a row in his this business is difficult enough to do. And then, three, and then you’re out there at five, and it just keeps mounting. You try to keep the negative thoughts out of your mind. It’s not something you talk about much with other people, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t there in the back of my mind.”

Jerre Paxton, who bred and owns Stopshoppingdebbie, has hinted that she could be ticketed for a fall campaign in Southern California should she continue winning at Emerald. Even a start in the Breeders’ Cup is on the table at this point. Lost in the Fog suffered his first defeat in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Belmont Park, and died a year later after veterinarians discovered that his body was riddled with cancer.

Gilchrist said he was always aware of Lost in the Fog’s winning streak, but never driven by it. He said he looked for races the horse could win, but never turned down a reasonable challenge.

“A lot of times, it’s taken out of your hands where you have to run anyway,” Gilchrist said. “After Lost in the Fog broke his maiden at Golden Gate, the first-level condition wouldn’t fill, so we had to look around for a race, and that’s how we ended up at Turf Paradise. But it was never about managing the horse and looking around to keep the streak alive. If you’re going to train racehorses, you can’t be afraid to lose. If you are, you have to get another occupation. That’s the whole game: If you can win 3 out of 10, you are an absolute star in this business.”

Jenne’s experience with Ladyledue was similar, but on a smaller, more localized scale. After recording two stakes victories at 2, Ladyledue won her first three starts in 2009.

“The pressure did build,” Jenne recalled. “But it was all about her. What could she do? I was always confident she could route – I knew she could route -- so there were no worries. She won going long and she won going short.”

But after her building her record to 5 for 5 through the midpoint of her 3-year-old year, Ladyledue suffered that 15-length loss in the Washington’s Lottery Handicap. She started just once more, storming back to take the season-ending John & Kitty Fletcher Stakes with ease, and then was sent to Kentucky, where plans for a further racing career fell through. Her loss to multiple stakes winner No Flies on Doodle was her only blemish in seven career starts.

Wenzel said he’s having a grand time with Stopshoppingdebbie, even as the plot thickens and the pressure mounts. Wenzel may be remembered as the one who trained Stopshoppingdebbie, just as Gilchrist will always be linked with Lost in the Fog. But, Gilchrist said, the superstars are not the ones that define you as a trainer.

“Those kind of horses make a trainer’s job very easy,” Gilchrist said. “You just point those kind in the right direction. It’s usually the claimers, the ones with soundness issues, those are the ones that make it difficult. That’s what most trainers would hang their hat on. Winning the stakes gets you in the Racing Form, but the Monday-through-Friday horse is the one you hang your hat on.”