A dark cloud is hanging over exciting galloper Adam I Am’s racing future after the son of Almanzor pulled up with a tendon injury following his win over 1400m at Ellerslie nine days ago.
He had proven to be one out of the box for trainer Glenn Old this season, bursting onto the scene at Matamata first-up in September when winning by five lengths before adding a further three wins to his tally and a fourth placing in last month’s inaugural $350,000 Sir Patrick Hogan Karapiro Classic (1600m) at Te Rapa.
He was set to have his first tilt at stakes level in the Group 2 Japan Trophy (1600m) at Tauranga this coming Saturday, but injury has curtailed those plans and Old said he has a fight on his hands to get his four-year-old gelding back to the track.
“He has pulled up with a tendon injury. He was alright on the Monday but then he had a couple of days in the paddock and when we brought him in on Thursday morning we noticed it, so it must have sprung out since raceday,” Old said.
“It is pretty hard work trying to get them back with those tendons, but we will give him a chance because it’s Adam. We will rescan it in three weeks and just see where we are. If we did do the rehab, he wouldn’t race again until he was six.”
Old trained Adam I Am’s dam, Our Famous Eve, and he said she suffered the same fate.
“I trained his mother and she did a tendon too, so I don’t know if it is hereditary,” he said. “I always thought that he would be any easy horse to keep sound because he doesn’t take much galloping, he is just a clean-winded, natural athlete. It just goes to show there are no rules.
“It was all in front of him, he is a big baby still.”
While disappointed with Adam I Am’s outcome, Old has another promising gelding in the barn called Choose ‘Em Big, who is set to have one final run this week before heading for a spell.
The four-year-old son of Preferment broke maiden ranks when beating subsequent Karapiro Classic runner-up Hasstobeawinner at Te Aroha in November and ran sixth in the innovation race at Te Rapa last month.
“It (Karapiro run) was quite good, he had to do a little bit of work from out wide, but he wasn’t too far away,” Old said.
“He is going to run on Friday at Taranaki over 1800m before I turn him out. He should be hard to beat down there. He will hopefully be a nice Cup horse for next season with a bit of luck.”