diff --git a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_driver.cc b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_driver.cc
index 6bf46861f5..00c007f088 100644
--- a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_driver.cc
+++ b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_driver.cc
@@ -117,6 +117,10 @@ bool RunStressTest(StressTest* stress) {
       }
     }
 
+    // This is after the verification step to avoid making all those `Get()`s
+    // and `MultiGet()`s contend on the DB-wide trace mutex.
+    stress->TrackExpectedState(&shared);
+
     now = clock->NowMicros();
     fprintf(stdout, "%s Starting database operations\n",
             clock->TimeToString(now / 1000000).c_str());
diff --git a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.cc b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.cc
index f680929262..84922ccb27 100644
--- a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.cc
+++ b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.cc
@@ -310,15 +310,6 @@ void StressTest::FinishInitDb(SharedState* shared) {
     }
   }
 
-  if ((FLAGS_sync_fault_injection || FLAGS_disable_wal) && IsStateTracked()) {
-    Status s = shared->SaveAtAndAfter(db_);
-    if (!s.ok()) {
-      fprintf(stderr, "Error enabling history tracing: %s\n",
-              s.ToString().c_str());
-      exit(1);
-    }
-  }
-
   if (FLAGS_enable_compaction_filter) {
     auto* compaction_filter_factory =
         reinterpret_cast<DbStressCompactionFilterFactory*>(
@@ -333,6 +324,17 @@ void StressTest::FinishInitDb(SharedState* shared) {
   }
 }
 
+void StressTest::TrackExpectedState(SharedState* shared) {
+  if ((FLAGS_sync_fault_injection || FLAGS_disable_wal) && IsStateTracked()) {
+    Status s = shared->SaveAtAndAfter(db_);
+    if (!s.ok()) {
+      fprintf(stderr, "Error enabling history tracing: %s\n",
+              s.ToString().c_str());
+      exit(1);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 bool StressTest::VerifySecondaries() {
 #ifndef ROCKSDB_LITE
   if (FLAGS_test_secondary) {
diff --git a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.h b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.h
index 60ecf46c12..786ace4ee3 100644
--- a/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.h
+++ b/db_stress_tool/db_stress_test_base.h
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ class StressTest {
   // dependency with `SharedState`.
   virtual void FinishInitDb(SharedState*);
 
+  void TrackExpectedState(SharedState* shared);
+
   // Return false if verification fails.
   bool VerifySecondaries();