LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Michael Iavarone leans against a black limousine outside Barn 24 at Churchill Downs, hands tucked in the pockets of his sweatpants, sun reflecting off his designer glasses.

The president of IEAH Stables, who won last year's Run for the Roses with Big Brown and purchased a stake in this year's morning line favorite I Want Revenge, shakes his head when talking about his newest star.

"He looks like he's made of glass," Iavarone says while the dark brown colt munches on some breakfast a few yards away. "He's spectacular."

Iavarone chats for a few minutes, drinking in the relative quiet. He knows it won't last long. It never does when IEAH is involved, a painful lesson Iavarone learned last spring during Big Brown's Triple Crown bid.

The massive colt came to the Derby as the favorite then backed it up with an overpowering 4fl-length win over filly Eight Belles. He followed it up with an almost comically easy victory in the Preakness two weeks later.

Suddenly, the upstart stable with the seemingly unstoppable horse found itself on the verge of history.

It seemed like a sure thing, at least according to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., who brazenly admitted his horse had been on a regular — and then-legal — cycle of steroids at the time of his remarkable run in the Derby.

And then it didn't happen.

Big Brown's bid for the first Triple Crown in 30 years ended when he was eased by jockey Kent Desormeaux as they turned for home, a mystifying end that still haunts Iavarone a year later.

Was it the oppressive heat? The distance? The quarter crack in the colt's left front foot? The strain of three races in five weeks? Steroid withdrawal?

Iavarone still doesn't know. It took him two months before he could watch a replay of the race. His kids still haven't popped in the tape.

The loss was painful. The fallout was worse.

Big Brown's shocking failure combined with the death of Eight Belles moments after the Derby put the already struggling industry in a harsh spotlight it desperately tries to avoid.

Protests were organized. Congressional hearings were held. Critics painted Big Brown as a product of better racing through chemistry — a symbol of a sport gone awry.

Iavarone saw his horse as an unwitting victim of a reactionary public.

"Big Brown was a poster child, almost like a Barry Bonds or a Mark McGwire scenario," he said. "In sports it was a hot button and it was just another one in a line."

Maybe, but this one carried some teeth. The outcry sped up a steroid ban that is now in place in 35 racing states, including all three where the Triple Crown races are run.

It's progress, but not enough to please Iavarone, who would like to see a national body governing the sport rather than individual states setting the rules.

"The problem is the perception and we're still at the point where the public perceives this almost as professional wrestling," he said.

Yet Iavarone's advocacy for racing reform hasn't been enough to keep controversy at bay.

Weeks after IEAH purchased a stake in I Want Revenge, trainer Jeff Mullins was caught giving another horse, Gato Go Win, an oral injection of an over-the-counter medication in a security barn in New York on April 4.

The infraction happened hours before I Want Revenge's remarkable stretch run to win the Wood Memorial and was exactly the kind of public relations problem IEAH didn't need.

"It was a very, very, I can use the word scary, time when I got the phone call," Iavarone said.

His advice to Mullins was simple: take your punishment and go on. Mullins agreed to a weeklong suspension that begins Sunday.

"I got a good taste on how to handle this stuff last year," Iavarone said. "I think he listened to us and I think he's doing what he's got to do, he's taking care of his race horse."

A horse that caught Iavarone's eye over the winter in California, but one he waited to make a move on until after the colt proved himself on dirt. I Want Revenge's eight-length win in the Gotham Stakes answered any lingering questions about his talent.

"He can win on any surface from anywhere," Iavarone said.

If I Want Revenge reaches the winner's circle on Saturday it would put IEAH in some heady company, joining racing luminaries like Calumet Farm and Penny Chenery of Secretariat fame as consecutive Derby winners.

"I think coming back here this year kind of helped solidify things," said Nick Sallusto, who helped orchestrate the deal to buy into I Want Revenge. "There's always a fear when people burst on the scene that they may have been one hit wonders and stuff like that."