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STEPHEN GOT EVEN
Stands for $7,500 live foal at Lane's End
Between Saturday, March 28, and Saturday, April 4, Stephen Got Even was represented by the most sensational winner of the week -- Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner I Want Revenge! The colt by Stephen Got Even out of Argentine-bred Meguial, by Roy, missed the break badly -- Equibase said: "I Want Revenge broke in the air spotting the field several lengths at the start..." -- but was nevertheless ridden with uncanny confidence and verve by jockey Joe Talamo, who let the colt pick up horses on his own, saved ground turning for home, found himself behind a wall in the straight, bumped a rival, switched paths, and finally found a seam to exploit. The colt was ridden hands and heels to the wire to win comfortably by a length and a half. To date, this was the most impressive performance by a 3-year-old classic contender -- Quality Road included -- and the race erased any doubts about the colt's ability to handle the type of adversity frequently encountered in a full Kentucky Derby field.
Stephen Got Even, a son of emerging "sire of sires" A.P. Indy, stands for only $7,500 and now has to be considered one of the best-value stallions on the planet. I Want Revenge, after all, isn't his first "big horse." Before him, there was 2005 Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Stevie Wonderboy, the champion 2-year-old colt of the year. Stevie Wonderboy also won the Grade 2 Del Mar Futurity and earned more than a million. There's also been 2005 Grade 2 Indiana Derby winner Don't Get Mad, who earned almost $800,000. All told, Stephen Got Even is the sire of 17 stakes winners, and I Want Revenge, with earnings of $816,000 to this point in his young career, threatens to be his best as the favorite for the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
Stephen Got Even himself was a talented 3-year-old colt and a Grade 1 winner at 4. At 3, the horse won the Grade 2 Galleryfurniture.com Stakes (Turfway's then-named $750,000 Derby prep) and was third in the Grade 1 Woodward against older horses. At 4, Stephen Got Even won the Grade 1 Donn defeating Golden Missile and Behrens and retired with more than a million in earnings.
One of three stakes winners for his Grade 1-placed dam, all by A.P. Indy, Stephen Got Even is exhibiting the same penchant for Mr. Prospector-line mares (I Want Revenge's dam is by Roy, by Fappiano, by Mr. Prospector) as his sire.
It's also no secret that sons of A.P. Indy have enjoyed considerable success with Southern Hemisphere-bred mares like I Want Revenge's dam -- see Indygo Shiner in Argentina, several sons of A.P. Indy in Chile, and the late Camden Park in South Africa -- and it's notable that A.P. Indy's own 2009 classic contender Friesan Fire is out of an Australian-bred mare.
--Sid Fernando
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