IEAH Stables Purchases Interest in Kentucky Derby-Bound I Want Revenge, Partners with David J. Lanzman on Ownership

Equispose release

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – IEAH Stables, the owners of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, has purchased a 50 percent interest in the Derby-bound I want Revenge, bloodstock agent Nick Sallusto announced Monday.

“The deal has been in the works for a while,” Sallusto said. “It was just a matter of ironing out the legalities. This colt is an amazing athlete and I couldn’t be happier with the acquisition.”

With the purchase of I Want Revenge and with leading 3-year-old filly Stardom Bound pointing toward Saturday’s $400,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, IEAH now owns top contenders for both the Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.

“We’re thrilled to have such an enormous talent join our stable,” said Michael Iavarone, president of IEAH stables. “He appears to be improving at the right time and I’m looking forward to a great working relationship with the preexisting connections. “We’re all appreciative of the hard work Nick put into making this deal come together.”

IEAH experienced a breakout year in 2008, when their runners brought in over $10.7 million in earnings and campaigned to 25 stakes wins.  The operation was a finalist for leading owner of the year and was represented by two Eclipse Award-winning champions – top male sprinter Benny The Bull and top 3-year-old male Big Brown.

I Want Revenge, a Kentucky-bred son of Stephen Got Even out of the stakes-winning Roy mare Meguial, ranks seventh with $324,000 in earnings on the most recent graded earnings list released March 23 by Churchill Downs. His last outing was an impressive 8½-length score in Aqueduct’s March 7 Gotham Stakes (Grade 3), for which he earned a 113 Beyer speed figure. He worked a bullet five furlongs in :58.20 on March 22 over Hollywood Park’s synthetic surface.

“I’m thrilled about the partnership,” said owner-breeder Lanzman. “I’m especially ecstatic to be where we’re at because this is only the second horse I’ve ever bred out of my first broodmare.”

Lanzman’s racing stable, David. J. Lanzman Racing, Inc. campaigned the California-based Squirtle Squirt who won the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and went on to take an Eclipse Award for Champion Sprinter that same year.

I Want Revenge raced on the West Coast’s synthetic surfaces in six previous starts for Lanzman before making his flawless transition to dirt. In Hollywood’s Dec. 20 CashCall Futurity (Grade 1), he ran second by a nose to Pioneerof the Nile. He was also third behind Pioneerof the Nile and Papa Clem in Santa Anita’s Feb. 7 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (Grade 2).

The 3 year-old colt will remain in training with the California-based Jeff Mullins and will campaign under the IEAH colors.  He will prep at Hollywood for the $750,000 Wood Memorial (Grade 1) at Aqueduct on April 4.  Jockey, Joe Talamo, who was aboard for the colt’s Gotham romp, will retain the mount.