DEL MAR – In addition to being the nickname Kobe Bryant gave himself, Black Mamba is the name of a now multigraded stakes-winning thoroughbred mare.
Ridden by Garrett Gomez, Black Mamba escaped from a boxed-in-on-the-rail predicament midway down the short stretch and bounded to a half-length victory in yesterday's Grade I, $400,000 John C. Mabee Handicap at Del Mar.
The victory came on the heels of one in the Grade II Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 29. The two-race winning streak followed a string of seven stakes outings in which Black Mamba was never worse than third but never won.
SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune
In addition to being the nickname Kobe Bryant gave himself, Black Mamba is the name of a now multigraded stakes-winning thoroughbred mare.
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The winning streak also coincides with Gomez getting the mount. Coincidence?
“I don't think it's a coincidence, no,” said winning trainer John Sadler. “He's the No. 1 rider nationally and I don't think that's a coincidence either.”
Breaking from the No. 1 post, 9-10 favorite Black Mamba was steered on a ground-saving inside path by Gomez. Turning into the stretch they were third behind pace-setting Passified but in close quarters with Solva and Ransom Captive alongside with nowhere to go.
“Yes, I was concerned down inside there,” Gomez said. “I had a great, ground-saving trip, but of course you've got to be able to get out at the end.
“What concerned me even more was even if we did get out, if she'd have enough left to quicken like I needed her to.”
Black Mamba is a 5-year-old New Zealand-bred who came to the United States a year ago and ran twice at Del Mar, winning an allowance race before finishing second to Precious Kitten in the Palomar Handicap.
The Beverly Hills win, Smith said, was achieved with a steady, sweeping move rather than the quick burst often needed in turf races here.
An opportunity to move Black Mamba into the clear arose yesterday past midstretch when Passified (third) and Solva (fifth) tired and couldn't keep up. Gomez swung Black Mamba out to the No. 2 path to go past Passified and then held off fast-closing 24-1 shot I Can See (second).
The time for 1 1/8 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course was 1:47.11.
“Today, when we did get out, she really did quicken,” Gomez said. “She turned it on. It might be that she's learning, or maybe that win (in the Beverly Hills) got her turned around some.
“She had what it took today.”
Black Mamba is owned by Doubledown Stables Inc., the nom de course of Richard B. Templer of Chicago. “I used to play a little blackjack,” Templer said in explaining the stable name. He had success at the game “on occasion.”
Templer's ownership of racehorses goes back nearly 30 years, he said, starting in the Midwest and branching out to the West Coast with his original trainer here being Hal King. It was Templer's first Grade I stakes win.
The $240,000 winner's share of the purse increased Black Mamba's career earnings to $599,171. A designated “Win and You're In” race for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 24, the victory assures Black Mamba a spot.
But it doesn't exempt Templer from having to put up a $300,000 supplemental fee to run in it.
Sadler said Black Mamba would likely run next in the 1¼-mile Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita on Sept. 27 with fee payment and the 1 3/8-mile Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf after that if all goes well.
Sadler saddled three winners yesterday, Soupy (third race, $10.20) and Sunshine Ridge (fifth, $16.40) preceding Black Mamba ($3.80). They gave Sadler nine wins for the week and extended his lead in the trainer standings to five (13-8) over Doug O'Neill and Mike Mitchell.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
