Tough to stop Stopshoppingdebbie

AUBURN, Wash. – Undefeated Stopshoppingdebbie, a burgeoning star in the Pacific Northwest, will shoot for her seventh consecutive victory Sunday in the $50,000 Washington State Legislators Stakes at Emerald Downs. First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific, and the Washington State Legislators is the eighth race on the program.

With a 6 for 6 start to her career, Stopshoppingdebbie is gunning for her sixth successive stakes victory on Sunday.

The Washington State Legislators attracted six entrants, meaning Stopshoppingdebbie has yet to run out of challengers on her home turf. But two of her five opponents will be her stablemates Blueberry Smoothie and Goin to the Window, and it’s been well established that Stopshoppingdebbie “owns” her barnmates, having beaten each of them five times.

Barring the unforeseen, Blueberry Smoothie and Goin to the Window will be competing for smaller pieces of the purse Sunday. The same is likely true of Tabled With Gold, an improving 4-year-old filly who looked sharp in her recent victory against $25,000 claimers but will be making her first stakes appearance. She’s never competed against anyone as fast as Stopshoppingdebbie.

The final two entrants, Madam Pele and Finding More, could offer upset bids if Stopshoppingdebbie fails to run her usual race. Madam Pele closed smartly to finish second in the May 11 Hastings Handicap, four lengths behind Stopshoppingdebbie, while Finding More helped set the pace in the Hastings before fading through the stretch to finish a distant fifth.

Trained by Tom Wenzel, Stopshoppingdebbie has worked once since her last start, breezing five furlongs May 30 in a casual 1:01. She and regular rider Rocco Bowen will break from the outside post position in the 6 1/2-furlong Washington State Legislators. Finding More, a candidate to set the early pace, will start from post 3.

While the pace could be brisk, it figures to be more restrained than in the Hastings, when Ms. Sutherland sprinted to a long early lead. Without Ms. Sutherland to gum things up, Finding More could be the one vying with Stopshoppingdebbie around the turn.

Should she win, Stopshoppingdebbie would likely start next in the one-mile Boeing Handicap on July 6. Farther down the line, Wenzel said a successful summer at Emerald Downs could be the springboard to a fall campaign on a bigger circuit, likely in Southern California. Given her sterling pedigree – by Curlin, from stakes-winning mare Taste the Passion, by Wild Again – she might fit in that tougher league.