Aussie connection with North America Cup hero

Odds On Mr Mamba, the brilliant harness racing winner of the $1 million North America Cup at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Ontario last Saturday (13th June), has close breeding links to Australia on both sides of his family tree. 

The colt is by Odds On Equuleus, a son of Alabar Bloodstock’s flagship Art Major who was runner-up in an elimination of the North America Cup himself in 2013. He stands stud in Indiana for the modest fee of $2,000. 

On his distaff side, Odds On Mr Mamba is out of the Grade 1 winning Western Ideal mare Honky Tonk Woman 1:50.4 ($560,138), whose grand-dam, Racy Dragon, was imported to Victoria by leading studmaster-breeder Ross Gange in 2006. 

Racy Dragon produced five foals in Australia including the Life Sign mare Vouvray, the dam of four sub 2:00 winners including Foolish Pleasure (Melton) and Always Locksley (Albion Park) and the second dam of the top Tasmanian mare Chenin Beach and the talented three-year-old Sols Me Name. 

Loua Dipa, the winner of the $420,000 Fan Hanover for three-year-old fillies in a stakes, track and Canadian record 1:48.2, is a daughter of the champion Woodlands Stud stallion Sweet Lou out of a mare by the former Victorian-based sire Pet Rock. 

Interestingly, Odds On Mr Mamba (1:47.8) and Loua Dipa (1:48) are the fastest two-year-old colt and filly respectively in harness racing history. 

Miki And Minnie, who won the $320,000 Roses For Red in a new lifetime mark of 1:48.2, is a four-year-old daughter of Alabar’s world champion sire Always By Miki and a member of the same family that produced the successful ‘down under’ sires Western Terror and Artiscape and Cobbitty Equine Farm’s new import Cannibal.  

In the trotting section, Neighver Punt, a son of the Muscle Hill horse Bar Hopping, took out the $240,000 Goodtimes for three-year-old colts and geldings, while Bourbonista, a Swedish bred mare by the champion French racehorse and sire Face Time Bourbon, won the $215,000 Armbro Flight in a career-best 1:50.8. 

Rounding out the winners on the $2.5 million racing card, Ervin Hanover captured the Grade 3 $100,000 Mohawk Gold Cup for older male pacers in 1:48.4. The six-year-old was sired by Captaintreacherous and is out of a mare by Well Said, who were both part of the roster at Empire Stallions in Victoria. 

by Peter Wharton, for Harnesslink

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