Racing: Adam I Am ready to be first into paradise

Adam I Am in action. Photo / Supplied

Don’t worry about Adam I Am’s fitness heading into the most important race of his career at Te Rapa tomorrow.

Because while the 550kg ball of excitement hasn’t been seen in public for more than five weeks trainer Glenn Old knows what he is taking to the races.

“He is always near his peak, he is one of those naturally fit horses,” says Old. “He is very clean-winded like his dam was so it doesn’t take much to keep him up to the mark even though he is a big, strong horse.”

Adam I Am is perfectly suited to tomorrow’s $350,000 Sir Patrick Hogan Karapiro Classic, the Waikato’s innovation race for horses who started the season as maidens.

Adam I Am did just that but has won three of his four starts in dazzling fashion, including the Thames Cup on January 3, the last time he raced or trialled.

The son of Almanzor has a new jockey, with Michael McNab replacing Jasmine Fawcett, who has done nothing wrong on the chestnut but his connections opted for a senior jockey because of the huge money now available to him.

“Michael has had two sits on him,” explains Old.

“He worked him last week then came over on Monday and we were allowed to work him on the course proper up against the inside, which was a really big help.

“He worked great and both Michael and I are happy. He is ready to go and this is the one we set him for.”

From barrier 8 punters can expect Adam I Am to settle off the speed and be asked to use his huge finishing kick late.

The Karapiro may be ideal for Adam I Am, who opened $2, but there is enormous depth to the 1600m race, with the topweight The Odyssey having already won the CD innovation race, the Remutaka Classic at Trentham.

Every horse in the race has won at least one of its last five starts with the exception of three-year-old To Catch A Thief, who has instead finished third in the 2000 Guineas, Sarten Memorial and Sires’ Produce Stakes.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.