Black Mamba Strikes In US
30 June 2008
After seven stakes placings in a row, Karaka Premier Sale graduate Black Mamba (Black Minnaloushe x Sneetch, by Grosvenor) has recorded her first stakes victory on American soil, taking home the US$150,000 Grade 2 Beverly Hills Handicap (2000m) at Hollywood Park earlier today.
Ridden by Garret Gomez for leading Inglewood trainer, John Sadler, the four-year-old justified her favouritism with an impressive outside run down the home straight from seven lengths back to win by a length-and-a-half.
"I wanted to make sure I didn't get caught down on the inside and I was able to do so. When I needed her, she was there for me. She kicked in and you know she really stays on well," commented Gomez.
Black Mamba hasn't run out of the money in her nine American starts, including third in the Grade 1 Oak Tree Yellow Ribbon Stakes (2000m) and five Grade 2 second placings. She has earned her connections in excess of US$350,000.
Black Mamba ran fifth in the New Zealand Oaks behind Princess Coup last season before a private sale to America was facilitated by local bloodstock agent Phil Cataldo. She is now raced in the US by Double Down Stables Inc.
Bred by Hawkes Bay businessman Sam Kelt's Keltern Stud, Black Mamba was sold as a yearling by Trelawney Stud at the Karaka Premier Sale for NZ$120,000 to Cambridge trainer Murray Baker. The bay mare is a half-sister to Gussy Godiva (Last Tycoon), the dam of one of the stand-out three-year-olds in New Zealand this year in Rios (Hussonet) and from the family of Fleur de Chine and Tully Thunder.
Sneetch's yearling filly by Galileo was purchased at the Karaka Premier Sale earlier this year by Matamata trainer John Sargent for NZ$270,000 from Esker Lodge. Sneetch has a weanling colt this season by Oratorio.