IEAH buys half-interest in I Want Revenge

I Want Revenge will remain with Jeff Mullins (Debra Kral/Horsephotos.com) IEAH Stables, the owners of 2008 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) winner Big Brown, has purchased a 50-percent interest in the Derby-bound I WANT REVENGE (Stephen Got Even), bloodstock agent Nick Sallusto announced Monday. The smashing winner of the Gotham S. (G3) last time out for his owner/breeder David Lanzman, the dark bay colt will now sport the famed silks of IEAH Stables, beginning in Saturday’s Wood Memorial S. (G1) at Aqueduct. I Want Revenge will remain in training with the California-based Jeff Mullins, and jockey Joe Talamo, who has been aboard for his past five starts, will retain the mount. “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 three-year-old filly
STARDOM BOUND (Tapit) pointing toward Saturday’s $400,000 Ashland S. (G1) at
Keeneland, IEAH now owns top contenders for both the Derby and the Kentucky Oaks
(G1).

“We’re thrilled to have such an enormous talent join our stable,” IEAH
President Michael Iavarone said. “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 more
than $10.7 million in earnings and racked up 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 (Lucky Lionel) and
top three-year-old male Big Brown.

I Want Revenge has amassed $324,000 in graded earnings, enough to assure him
of a spot in the starting gate for the Run for the Roses. When romping by 8 1/2
lengths in the March 7 Gotham, he earned a 113 BRIS Speed figure.

“I’m thrilled about the partnership,” Lanzman said. “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 Squirtle
Squirt, who won the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) 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
December 20 CashCall Futurity (G1), he ran second by a nose to Pioneerof the
Nile (Empire Maker). He was also third behind Pioneerof the Nile and Papa Clem
(Smart Strike) in Santa Anita’s Robert B. Lewis S. (G2) on February 7.