By Alan Carasso
There is no truth to the rumor that T O Elvis (Volatile) stepped onto the Churchill Downs main track last Saturday to the Theme from 2001 Space Odyssey, the instrumental to which the horse's namesake took to the stage for wildly popular concerts in the 1970s.
But when Elvis–T O, that is–'left the building' following a defeat of no fewer than seven last-out graded winners in a renewal of the GI Churchill Downs Stakes that was widely heralded as one of the best races of the year, there will have been no 'suspicious minds' about the 4-year-old colt.
“We were just hoping he'd hit the board and then he took off right around the eighth pole. It was impressive,” said Jeff Prunzik, who bred T O Elvis in partnership with his wife Melissa.
The Prunziks own and operate Stone Bridge Farm east of downtown Lexington in an area between Interstates 64 to the north and 75 to the southwest. Stone Bridge was a division of the Courtney Family's Crestfield Farm and in its 80-some years of existence, has been graced by better than 50 black-type winners, including Fit To Fight, Meadowlake and his champion daughter Meadow Star–who remains in pedigrees to this day as the great-granddam of the late Arrogate–and champion Action This Day.
In the form of Stopshoppingdebbie (Curlin), Stone Bridge looks to have found its next superstar producer. Bred and raced by the Northwest Farms of the late Jerre Paxton and trained by Tom Wenzel, the daughter of two-time stakes winner Taste the Passion (Wild Again) was a sensation in the Pacific Northwest, winning her first nine starts, eight in stakes company.
A half-sister to multiple stakes winners Shampoo (Gulch) and closely related to MSW Smarty Deb (Smart Strike), Stopshoppingdebbie fetched $410,000 from Town & Country Farms and Pollock Farms in foal to Medaglia d'Oro at Keeneland November. But that mating, along with subsequent visits to American Pharoah and Pioneerof the Nile effectively yielded no fruit and the Prunziks acquired Stopshoppingdebbie privately in foal to Uncle Mo in 2019.
“We bought the farm in 2017 and we slowly built the business by boarding and then we eventually got into the ownership of some mares,” explained the 56-year-old Prunzik, who is in the commercial real estate business and owns the downtown Pittsburgh eatery Olive Or Twist. “Ever since we bought Stopshoppingdebbie, everything out of her has run.”
“She was fairly correct and obviously she was by Curlin,” Prunzik continued. “I thought her race record and physical and pedigree made her attractive.”
But the 16-year-old mare has proven that she is no one-hit wonder. Her current 5-year-old, Generous Tipper (Street Sense), was third in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at two and won the Discovery Stakes at three in 2024 for Walking L Thoroughbreds and Ken McPeek before changing hands in a private purchase by Wathnan Racing.
The Prunziks elected to send Stopshoppingdebbie to Three Chimneys' Volatile for her 2021 covering.
Stopshoppingdebbie | Courtesy Stone Bridge Farm
“Our prior farm manager was a big fan of Volatile and thought it would be a nice mix to try to inject some speed into her,” Prunzik said. “And that's how it developed.”
A breed-to-sell operation with 29 mares they own outright or as part of a syndicate, Stone Bridge would have otherwise been preparing to offer the Volatile colt at the 2023 Keeneland September Sale, but things never got that far, as representatives of owner Tomoya Ozasa swooped in earlier in the year.
“I think they came in through Vinery, Derek MacKenzie,” Prunzik recollected. “They were clients of his and Derek comes out every year and looks at our yearlings and our babies. They put an offer in after they visited the farm and we sold the colt.”
Stone Bridge is still well positioned to take full advantage of the booming pedigree update from last weekend. The operation retains Stopshoppingdebbie's unraced 3-year-old half-sister Under Arrest (Tiz the Law) and they bought out their syndicate on the mare's current 2-year-old filly My Pal Al (Golden Pal), who hammered for $300,000 at Keeneland September last year.
“And we have a nice Maxfield [colt] on the ground and she is back in foal to McKinzie,” Prunzik said of Stopshoppingdebbie.
Having returned to Japan earlier this week, T O Elvis could be destined for a return trip to the U.S. later this fall, this time in Prunzik's Bluegrass backyard at Keeneland.
“Oh, that would be really exciting for us, the farm and all our guys and girls on the farm,” said Prunzik when asked about a possible GI Breeders' Cup Sprint appearance. “To have it here in Lexington, yeah, that would really be exciting.”
Elvis really is everywhere. And Jeff Prunzik is loving every minute of it.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
