Icon Racing

By Steve Buffery

Fort Erie was attacked by American troops on two occasions in 1812. Over two centuries later, there’s been a different sort of invasion going down at the border city – an onslaught of winning horses at the town’s iconic oval, Fort Erie Race Track.

In Ontario thoroughbred racing circles this season, a major topic of conversation has been the success of ICON Racing Stable and trainer Anthony Adamo at Fort Erie, and, to a lesser extent, at Woodbine. The numbers have been mind-boggling.

In 15 starts at Fort Erie this year, Adamo and ICON have recorded 10 wins, a second and two thirds. At Woodbine, they’ve entered five and posted three wins, a second and a third. Overall in 2026, Adamo has 15 wins, three seconds and three thirds in 23 starts. Adamo’s horses went 4-for-4 on opening day at Fort Erie and he and his owners captured the first four stakes wins at the Fort. Even more impressive, between May 5 and June 7 of this season, Adamo’s entries (according to Equibase) won 10 straight races. Yet despite his tremendous start, Adamo is keeping everything in perspective.

“I know it sounds cliché, but I really do just try to go day-by-day in this game, because you’re only as good as your last win,” Adamo said. “In fact, we had a horse in and he was 3-1 at $115,000 at Woodbine (this year), and the day before he had a little incident and couldn’t run. That’s why you gotta go day by day in this game. They’re not machines. They’re animals and anything can happen.

“But hopefully it keeps going, right?” the personable Adamo added. “We don’t want to hit the brick wall.”

The partnership between Dave Andreola-owned ICON, which started full-time in racing in 2024, and Adamo, has been a match made in horse racing heaven, and a nice shot in the arm for the sport in Ontario, especially at Fort Erie. Adamo and Andreola’s son Nick, the stable’s racing manager, have been aggressively claiming horses and, more than that, try to come up with a comprehensive plan for each horse. So far, it’s paid off, as the numbers demonstrate. For Adamo, there’s only been one minor fly in the ointment.

“Our plan this year was to do some claiming for Woodbine, for horses that won’t go to Fort Erie. But I’m just having a hard time finding horses to claim,” said the Buffalo, N.Y. native, who now lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON. “That’s the only disappointment I would say about this year so far. It kind of hurt us when Marty Drexler didn’t come back because we did a lot of claiming off of Marty, and Marty ran a lot of horses.

“But every year is different,” Adamo added. “Last year, it was easier for me because we did a lot of claiming early. We claimed horses that were fit already. This year, actually the one horse (Marshall) that we ran that WAS fit didn’t win at Woodbine.”

The four-year-old chestnut colt finished fourth on April 19.

The success Adamo and ICON have enjoyed this season has really been a continuation of a splendid 2025 campaign. Adamo posted 38 victories last year with a win percentage of 38% - the highest win percentage of any thoroughbred trainer in North America with at least 100 starts (according to Bloodhorse) – saddling horses at Fort Erie, Woodbine and Mountaineer Casino Racetrack.

And while Adamo may be a veteran in the racing game, he didn’t come from a horse racing background, other than the fact that his dad used to take the family to watch racing.

“Me and my brother went with him and I did a little gambling, I think I won 10 bucks and my brother lost and he never went back and that was it for me,” said Adamo, with a laugh.

After obtaining an associate degree from Morrisville College, Adamo began working with horses, obtaining his trainer’s license in 1992. For years, he worked for the controversial, though highly-successful, owner Michael Gill, before relocating to Fort Erie.

“I think my first horse (Blake Snow) finished fourth and I thought I won the (Kentucky) Derby,” Adamo said.

Adamo gives a lot of credit to Nick Andreola for the team’s success the last couple of seasons.

“My job is very easy, just to train the horses,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about paying the feed man, the blacksmith, the vet … my job is strictly to train horses, which I love. Just taking care of the horses and not having to worry about the outside stuff.”

Adamo acknowledges that not everyone is over the moon with ICON’s success at Fort Erie.

“I understand the frustration from others (owners and trainers) because we’re winning a lot of races,” he said. “But without ICON there, and without (Bruno) Schickedanz, I don’t know how they would even fill races. But I do understand some aggravation from other parties.

“I always say, if everybody likes you in the business, you’re not doing anything right,” Adamo added. “I read a quote from an old trainer and it was: ‘I try to keep myself in the best of company and my horses in the worst.’  And that’s what I try to do, run my horses where they can win. But overall it’s great. There’s a lot of supporters there. Dave had a lot of shirts made up and people are always asking, ‘Can I get a ball cap?’. And you see a lot of people in our winner’s circle.”

When not at the track, which is rare during the season, Adamo tries to spend as much time as possible with his family – wife Sheryl and sons Kyle and Danny. The latter plays Jr. B for the Fort Erie Meteors. This past season, Danny scored 11 goals and added seven assists in 11 Sutherland Cup playoff games, as well as recording 29 goals and 63 points in 47 regular season games.

Seems like sporting success runs in the family.