Remember Mamba finds another gear late to triumph in Transylvania

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Last summer at Saratoga, the trainer Cherie DeVaux believed the colt Remember Mamba could be a stakes horse – like, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf horse. That level.

She held that belief into the fall, too, even after a setback delayed Remember Mamba’s debut. And on Friday at Keeneland, Remember Mamba proved his trainer correct, sprouting wings at the sixteenth pole and getting up by a half-length over Honey Dutch to win the Grade 3, $600,000 Transylvania Stakes.

Remember Mamba won his debut going 1 1/8 miles on this course in October and easily beat first-level allowance horses on Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds. He’s 3 for 3 now, the spacing of his races designed to bring a fresh horse into the heart of the 3-year-old turf stakes season.

Immediately after the Transylvania, DeVaux said she wasn’t sure where Remember Mamba would next race. She said she has the $750,000 Belmont Derby on July 4 at Saratoga circled as a major summer goal and will work back from that.

The Belmont Derby is run over 1 1/8 miles, the Transylvania at 1 1/16 miles. On Friday, Remember Mamba was just getting warmed up at the wire.

“This is as short as he wants to go,” DeVaux said.

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Jose Ortiz rode Remember Mamba with absolute confidence. Bumped a bit at the start, Remember Mamba settled into an easy stride, racing seventh of 11 around the first turn and onto the backstretch. Street Beast broke sharply and established a clear early lead, going his half-mile over a “good” course that took late morning rain Friday in 48.28 seconds.

Ortiz, riding the 2-1 favorite, zeroed in on second-choice Vasy on the backstretch, getting onto his tail – both horses going into the second turn about two paths from the rail – and staying there as Vasy progressed around the bend. Remember Mamba tipped outside at the quarter pole – and didn’t give Ortiz an immediate burst.

Remember Mamba does not have a miler’s brilliance. It takes him some time to wind up his run. He wandered about a bit, too. At the furlong grounds, Remember Mamba only was fifth, and it looked, frankly, like he had too much to do. Turns out, the colt had not yet hit high gear.

“I don’t know what it is, but at the sixteenth pole, he just takes off,” Ortiz said.

Remember Mamba launched, got to Vasy, ran down Street Beast and, finally, Honey Dutch to prevail. He ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.49 and paid $6.88 to win.

Honey Dutch raced closest to Street Beast before overtaking him in deep stretch. Honey Dutch has lost four stakes in a row but finished second in three of them and third in the other. He has lost by a total of three lengths in those defeats.

Vasy, a neck behind Honey Dutch, also has become a model of consistency. He finished well enough but, unlike Remember Mamba, might top out at the Transylvania’s 1 1/16-mile distance.

Street Beast finished another neck back in fourth. After Street Beast was unsaddled, his left hind leg was bandaged and the colt was taken off the track in an equine ambulance, but trainer Ben Colebrook said Street Beast had only suffered what appeared to be a relatively superficial cut.

DeVaux trains Remember Mamba for Lee and Susan Searing’s C R K Stable. Purchased at a yearling auction for $270,000, Remember Mamba was bred by Burning Daylight Farms and November Hills, a son of Kitten’s Joy and the Uncle Mo mare Gizmo.

Three for three, a graded stakes winner, and, from all appearances, plenty more to come. Don’t forget the name – Remember Mamba.

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