Adhamo starts first campaign for Brown in Fair Grounds Stakes

As with the Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who once employed him, the sight of a European import entered for the first time in an American turf race draws extra attention when the horse is trained by Chad Brown.

That’s a natural consequence of horses like Stacelita, Zagora, and Sistercharlie going on to win Eclipse Awards for Brown after starting their career overseas.

Now, no one is putting Adhamo in that category. But he definitely looks like a horse who could have a high-level impact in the older-male turf division this year, a sense Adhamo can validate Saturday in the Fair Grounds Stakes, his North American debut.

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Adhamo, a 4-year-old Irish-bred son of Intello, was purchased at auction last year after a seven-race French campaign in 2021 for his breeders, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, and trainer Freddy Head. He’s one of 11 entrants in the Fair Grounds, a 1 1/8-mile race that drew an excellent field for a winter Grade 3 grass race.

Adhamo has been with Brown since late fall 2021 and has posted seven workouts at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.

“The horse looks very good physically,” Brown said earlier this week, an assertion supported by online workout videos.

Adhamo wasn’t a top member of his class last year in France, but he did perform creditably in France’s most important 3-year-old race, the Prix du Jockey Club over 1 5/16 miles in June at Chantilly. There, Adhamo raced in a claustrophobic mid-pack slot much of the trip, making his way toward the far-side rail for a final push to the finish. He wound up seventh but was beaten less than five lengths by top-class winner St Mark’s Basilica while finishing in front of 12 foes.

Adhamo had a long campaign, racing from March through October, and appeared to be over the top even before concluding his season with his worst race of the year, finishing eighth of 10 in the Group 2 Prix Dollar.

“Not to disparage anyone, but we do like to find horses that maybe the campaign they had was not quite right for them,” said Brown.

Adhamo showed some positional pace overseas and more of a steady, solid finish than a brilliant turn of foot. But he’s in America now with Chad Brown, which means no one will be surprised if Adhamo shows more Saturday than he did on the other side of the Atlantic.