Recent Keeneland purchase I Want Revenge dies in Indiana

The star-crossed saga of I Want Revenge ended with a brutal turn of events when the stallion died Saturday in Indiana following a brief illness 12 days after being purchased at auction.

Jeff Jeans purchased I Want Revenge, who most recently stood at Millennium Farms in Lexington, Ky., for $10,000 out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Nov. 12. He shipped the horse to Indiana Stallion Station in Anderson, Ind., where he intended to stand him in 2019. However, the 12-year-old son of Stephen Got Even was ill after traveling.

"During the Keeneland sale last week, we had to pull a weanling filly out of the sale due to a virus that she had caught while at the Keeneland sale barn," Jeans said in a statement released late Saturday night.

"I was told by the farm manager that several of the babies were affected. When we took possession of I Want Revenge and shipped him to Indiana, we were told upon his arrival that he had a 104 fever. The same type of fever our weanling came back from the sale with.

"Joyce Baker, the owner of Indiana Stallion Station, called me and told me what was going on, and [wife] Stacy [and] I let her know to go ahead and get a vet out right away and start treating him,” the statement continued. “IVs were started through a catheter. After a few days he began to respond, the fever dropped, and then [Saturday] afternoon, when I called to check on him, Joyce told me we had a setback in that I Want Revenge was struggling with his breathing. The vet was immediately called back out and began a new regimen of treatment."

Jeans said that following that, he received a call that the stallion had died.

"Stacy and I are so brokenhearted," Jeans said. "This is a horse who had the heart of a champion. He gave everything he had. He dealt with less-than-favorable circumstances throughout his racing and breeding career."

I Want Revenge began his career racing for breeder David Lanzman, breaking his maiden in his fourth career start in 2008 at Hollywood Park before finishing second by a nose to Pioneerof the Nile in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity. He finished third to Pioneerof the Nile and Papa Clem in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes the following February.

He then shipped to the East Coast and, in his first start on dirt, won the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes by 8 1/2 lengths. Sent off as the favorite in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial the next month, he reared at the start and encountered traffic on the turn, but was still up to win by 1 1/2 lengths.

I Want Revenge was the morning-line favorite for the 2009 Kentucky Derby, but was scratched the morning of the race with filling in an ankle. The colt did not return to the races for more than a year, and, during that period, was the subject of a bitter legal dispute among his ownership. IEAH Stables, which had bought into the colt in March 2009, sued Lanzman, claiming that the latter had not disclosed the injury that eventually led to the scratch. That chapter of the story ended with IEAH buying out Lanzman's share in the colt, and I Want Revenge moved from trainer Jeff Mullins to Rick Dutrow.

I Want Revenge returned to the races in July 2010, and went winless in his final six starts, although he did record four stakes placings, highlighted by a third in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap and a third in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes. The horse later suffered from a throat issue that compromised his breathing, leading to him being scratched at the gate out of an overnight stakes in March 2012 at Aqueduct. He was subsequently retired, finishing his career with a record of 14-3-3-6 and earnings of $928,000.

The start of I Want Revenge's stud career was delayed as IEAH waded through legal troubles, with the stallion prospect residing at Blackwood Stables in Versailles, Ky., as a legal asset during that time. I Want Revenge entered stud at Pauls Mill Farm in Versailles for the 2014 breeding season, as that farm's owner, Ben Walden, returned to the stallion business after a three-year hiatus. Walden later decided to change course with his operation, leading to I Want Revenge's move to Millennium in 2015, where he stood through this year.

I Want Revenge's oldest foals are 3, and he is the sire of 16 winners from 42 starters through Saturday, for combined progeny earnings of $529,071. His runners are led by Mexican Revenge, who is based in the country of the same name, where he won the Group 2 Clasico Ciudad de Mexico this year.