diff --git a/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/smoke_tests/training_stability.rs b/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/smoke_tests/training_stability.rs
index 5a998ae88..69a638247 100644
--- a/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/smoke_tests/training_stability.rs
+++ b/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/smoke_tests/training_stability.rs
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ fn test_production_training_stability() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     assert!(!entries.is_empty(), "No .fxcache files in {:?}", cache_dir);
 
     let fxcache_data = fxcache::load_fxcache(&entries[0].path())?;
-    let n = fxcache_data.bar_count;
+    // Cap at 5000 bars for fast smoketest (~62 steps/epoch × 10 epochs ≈ 10s debug).
+    // Full 1.1M ES bars take 20min in debug (14K steps/epoch). H100 release handles full set.
+    let n = fxcache_data.bar_count.min(5000);
     let train_end = (n * 80) / 100;
 
     let mut trainer = smoke_trainer()?;