Grade I winner I Want Revenge will enter stud for the 2014 season at Ben and Elaine Walden's Pauls Mill near Versailles, Ky., it was announced Sept. 6.
The heavy pre-race favorite for the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) until raceday–when he was forced to scratch due to an ankle filling–I Want Revenge launches Walden's return to the stallion business, which has been on hiatus since the sale of four stallions to WinStar Farm in 2011.
Campaigned by IEAH Stables and partners, I Want Revenge took the 2009 Wood Memorial Stakes (gr. I) after winning the Gotham Stakes (gr. III) by 8 1/2 lengths.
"I love falling in love with a stallion," said Walden, who has partnered on the stallion with Pat Madden. "I count it a privilege to support a stallion with a lot of our own mares, and to infuse ideas and passion into his marketing.
"I Want Revenge is a game-changer. He had freak talent as a racehorse and is the best-made horse conformation-wise that I have ever retired to stud. His Wood Memorial win was truly unforgettable."
By a son of A.P. Indy out of a daughter of Roy (Fappiano), I Want Revenge is bred along the same lines as Tapit and Bernardini . His dam, Meguial, was one of Roy's top winners in Argentina, where she was second in the Argentine equivalents to the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks.
Roy was a 17-length winner of his maiden race at 2, and won twice at Aqueduct Racetrack at 3 before going on to be the leading sire or broodmare sire eight times in Chile and Argentina.
I Want Revenge was weighted at 118 on the Experimental Free Handicap at 2 after finishing second by a nose to Pioneerof the Nile in the Hollywood Futurity (gr. I). He was bred in Kentucky by David J. Lanzman Racing and retires with a 3-3-6 record from 14 starts and earnings of $928,000.
"I have an exceptional partner in I Want Revenge in Pat Madden, and we currently have a second horse in mind," Walden said. "We have been buying mares of late, and Pat enjoys the symmetry of being involved in both sides of the business."
A stud fee will be announced in the near future.
I Want Revenge last raced Jan. 28, 2012, when he finished second in the Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct. That was his lone start last year; he ran three times in 2011 including a fourth in the Donn Handicap (gr. I) in his season's debut. In 2010 he was third in the Suburban Handicap (gr. I) and Phillip H. Iselin Stakes (gr. III).