David Lanzman

Morning-line favorite I Want Revenge was scratched for the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (Grade I) on Saturday morning after an undiagnosed problem was detected in the left front ankle of the Jeff Mullins-trained colt.

Dr. Foster Northrop, the attending veterinarian, x-rayed and ultra-sounded the ankle without determining a cause for the inflammation that he said was defused in the ankle above and below the sesamoid.

“On the digital X-rays I’m not seeing any bone lesion at all. It X-rays really pristine, so I do think more soft tissue at this point. Ultrasound, which is basically an X-ray on soft tissue, I’m not seeing a lesion either. So further diagnostics will be done,” Northrop said. “It’s a high-risk area for being injured and we need to be sure there’s not an abnormality with further diagnostics.”

Mullins detected the problem shortly after arriving at Barn 24 on the Churchill Downs backstretch, finding heat in the ankle after removing the Wood Memorial (Grade I) winner’s bandages, washing his legs and giving them a routine check.

“We detected a little pressure and a touch of heat in the left front ankle. We jogged him up and down the asphalt to check for soundness and he actually jogged pretty well. We flexed the ankle and he gave to the flexing of the ankle,” Mullins said. “By that time, Dr. Foster (Northrop) showed up. He jogged him again and he jogged fairly good. Dr. Foster flexed the ankle and he gave to the flexion again.”

Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian for the American Association for Equine Practitioners, also examined I Want Revenge.

“After Jeff and Dr. Northrop looked at him, I came by to look at him a third time, and he didn’t jog that bad, but the inflammation was there in his ankle. Unfortunately, this close to the Derby, there’s not a way to gauge how important that is yet. So we have to err on the side of caution, and I’d like to commend the owners and Jeff for doing what’s right for the horse until we know what’s going on.”

The decision to scratch I Want Revenge, however disheartening, came easily for breeder and majority owner David Lanzman.

“I can’t look back at what might have been. It’s really not going to do me any good. I think I’ve hired the best people in the world to give me the decisions as to what they think we should do,” Lanzman said. “When the words came out that running could hurt the horse, I looked at those doctors and I said: ‘Then this is no debate. What are we talking about? We’ll fight another day.’ ”

Mullins said he had been completely satisfied with I Want Revenge’s preparation for the Run for the Roses while raising the possibility that the colt might have wrenched his ankle while training on a wet track Friday morning.

“To me, in my whole career, I’ve never handled a horse of this caliber before and I’m just not going to take a chance on hurting him.” Mullins said. “I’ve been in this business kind of all my life. Most of the things I’ve learned in this business I learned by hard knocks in more ways than one. Your biggest dream is to get here, but the biggest nightmare is to get to race day and have to scratch. Right now I don’t think it’s sunk in that much, but I’m pretty disappointed.”

I Want Revenge, whom Mullins said was unlikely to run in the Preakness Stakes (Grade I) in two weeks, is the first morning-line favorite to be scratched on the morning of the Kentucky Derby.

“Really, I’m at a loss of words. I’m just glad the horse is OK. It could have been a lot worse. Something could have happened on the track. I’m just glad it happened in the stall, and I believe everyone did the right thing by the horse,” 19-year-old jockey Joe Talamo said. “He’s the one who got us here, so you have to do the right thing by him.”

KENTUCKY DERBY ADJUSTED PURSE
Purse: $2,177,200 (if 19 horses start)
Winner: $1,417,200
Second: $400,000
Third: $200,000
Fourth: $100,000
Fifth: $60,000

A Saturday that featured three major prep races for the $2 million-guaranteed Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (Grade I) ended with a new favorite in the third and final pool of Churchill Downs' 2009 Kentucky Derby Future Wager ("KDFW") as a dazzling win in Aqueduct's Wood Memorial propelled I Want Revenge into the pool's top spot.

David Lanzman and IEAH Stables' 3-year-old son of Stephen Got Even overcame a slow start and major traffic problems to score a dramatic victory under Joe Talamo in the 1 1/8-mile Wood and saw his KDFW Pool 3 odds drop to 9-2 by the end of the day's betting.  He had opened the day at 10-1.  Florida Derby (GI) winner Quality Road, the favorite through the first two days of the four-day pool, was the second choice at 6-1 and Louisiana Derby (GII) winner Friesan Fire was a close third choice at 7-1.

The day's other major Kentucky Derby prep races featured victories by odds-on favorite Pioneeerof the Nile in the Santa Anita Derby (GI) and Musket Man in the Illinois Derby (GII) at Hawthorne Park.  Pioneerof the Nile was the 11-1 fourth choice after Saturday's Pool 3 betting, while Musket Man's odds stood at 33-1, a considerable drop from his 96-1 odds that were in place at the start of the day's betting.

The Kentucky Derby Future Wager, now in its 11th year, provides offers Derby fans the opportunity to bet on contenders for the 135th renewal of the Kentucky Derby at odds that could be more attractive than those available when the race is run on May 2 at Churchill Downs.  Along with the Future Wager's traditional $2 "win" bet, this year's third pool is only the second in history to offer exacta wagering.  Both the KDFW "win" bet and its exacta wager require a $2 minimum bet.  There are no scratches or refunds in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

A total of $217,791 has been wagered during the first three days of Pool 3, which pushed the total betting for all three 2009 KDFW pools to $1,076,932.  That marks the tenth consecutive year in which total wagering in the three Derby Future pools has surpassed the $1 million mark.  Exacta betting in Pool 3 stood at $53,960 heading into Sunday's final day of Derby Future betting.  Betting in KDFW Pool 3 resumes at noon (all times EDT) on Sunday, April 5 and the pool will close at 6 p.m.

Real time odds, exacta payouts and other information on the Kentucky Derby Future Wager are available on the official event Web site at www.kentuckyderby.com.