An unknown quantity no longer. Odds On Mr Mamba has arrived and based on his 2026 Pepsi North America Cup elimination, the sport's fastest ever two-year-old is poised to strike on the Grand Circuit as a sophomore.
In 2022, Odds On Equuleus had 31 registered matings and 18 registered foals. Of that small crop came Odds On Mr Mamba, who shocked the harness racing world in 2025 with a 1:47.4 score in Indiana Sires Stakes action at Harrah's Hoosier Park last October.
"We train a lot of horses for Dana Parham of Odds On Racing," Wrenn told Trot Insider at the 2026 Pepsi North America Cup Post Position Draw on Tuesday, June 9 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. "We started [Odds On Mr Mamba] at Ake Svanstedt's place in Vero Beach, Florida. And it really wasn't that great from the beginning...we had our second [trainers] going with him, because he just didn't show. Maybe a little off here, a little off there, and need a little time here.
"We gave him that extra time," Wrenn continued. "And we brought him back to Hoosier Park and he started to come along but you really didn't know he was Odds On Mr Mamba before he got to the races. When he qualified, it was like 'oh, you know what? He's got some go."
The Odds On Racing homebred faced Grand Circuit company just once in 2025, winning the G3 Elevation at Hoosier Park just before that world record mile. But heading into Saturday, no one really knew how the colt would stack up against the best of the best, away from home for the first time.
He beat the best of the best, handing 2025 Horse of the Year Beau Jangles his first career defeat in a 1:48.2 thriller. MacDonald, driving Odds On Mr Mamba for the first time, felt he was a winner heading into that last turn.
"Just the way the trip worked out and the way he felt," noted MacDonald, the five-time O'Brien Award winner and two-time World Driving Champion who's still in search of his first Cup title. "I've had a few people say to me 'oh, I've never seen you sitting like that in the last turn' because he would not stay in the hole any longer. He was like 'let me at 'em'."
Odds On Mr Mamba (Odds On Equuleus - Honky Tonk Woman) drew post three in the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup, just to the inside of fellow elim winner Sweet Lovin Lou (PP4) and the aforementioned Beau Jangles (PP5). MacDonald complimented the performance of Sweet Lovin Lou, the horse he drove to victory in the first Pepsi North America Cup elim, and expects an extremely competitive tussle in this Saturday's million-dollar showdown.
"It's such a deep field; there are probably five, six, seven, eight horses that can win," noted MacDonald. "I just hope the race shakes out the way it can for us and hopefully we can get as much as we can, if not all."
To watch the full interview with MacDonald and Wrenn, where they also discuss the colt's elimination performance and his drifting in the stretch, click the play button below.
The complete field is listed below in post position order.
$1 million G1 Pepsi North America Cup - Race 11 (10:45 p.m. ET)
Post - Horse - Listed Driver - Trainer
1. Melillo - Ronnie Wrenn Jr. - Ron Burke
2. Redland Rocket Man - Louis-Philippe Roy - John Pentland
3. Odds On Mr Mamba - James MacDonald - Melanie Wrenn
4. Sweet Lovin Lou - Scott Zeron - Dan Lagace
5. Beau Jangles - Bob McClure - Dr. Ian Moore
6. Lindy Dragonwater - Jason Bartlett - Ron Burke
7. Azrael Blue Chip - Andrew McCarthy - Besim Odza
8. Al Papi - Yannick Gingras - Ron Burke
9. No Waitlist - Doug McNair - Blake MacIntosh
10. Brandon Blvd - Dexter Dunn - Andrew Harris
The lucrative undercard will include the Grade 1 filly companion stakes, the $420,000 Fan Hanover Stakes, along with the $320,000 Roses Are Red Stakes (Grade 1) for older pacing mares, $240,000 Goodtimes Stakes (Grade 2) for three-year-old trotting colts, $215,000 Armbro Flight Stakes (Grade 2) for older trotting mares and a $65,000 Free-For-All Trot. Those stakes fields and Saturday's complete entries are available by clicking one of the following links: Woodbine Mohawk Park — Saturday Entries || Saturday Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).
(Standardbred Canada)