US Group 1 Glory for Black Mamba

US Group 1 Glory for Black Mamba

Karaka Premier Sale graduate Black Mamba (Black Minnaloushe x Sneetch, by Grosvenor) has recorded her first Group 1 win on American soil in the US$400,000 John C Mabee Handicap (1800m) today at Del Mar.

Trained by John Sadler and ridden by Garret Gomez, she performed brilliantly to overcome traffic on the way to downing I Can See and Passified by a half-length. The five-year-old mare started the highweight in the eight-strong field, racing off the back of a last-start win in the Grade 2 Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 29.

Owned by Doubledown Stables Inc., she has run in the money in all ten of her starts on American soil which includes placings in seven stakes races. Last year she was third in the Group 1 Oak Tree Yellow Ribbon Stakes (2000m) with Sadler tipping another tilt at the race as their next stop this campaign.

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.

Former Windsor Park shuttle sire Black Minnaloushe's final New Zealand crop of yearlings will be offered at New Zealand Bloodstock's 2009 National Yearling Sales Series (26 January - 3 February).

ENDS

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