Big Brown owners IEAH are on a roll

In just his fifth year as co-president of International Equine Acquisition Holdings, Iavarone is on an ultimate high: Two weeks ago his 3-year-old colt Big Brown blew away the field to win the Kentucky Derby, and now the big bay is the overwhelming 1-2 favorite for the $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Saturday.

A win, and it's on the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 7, with a chance to become the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978.

The 37-year-old Iavarone, with his unseasonable tan, slicked back hair and designer sunglasses, brings a bit of Manhattan flair to the horse ownership mix. He's also brought a Wall Street business model, soundly beating the long odds against having a horse in the winner's circle.

His secret? Like the New York Yankees, he spends big to buy proven assets. But that requires lots of bucks and a tolerance for potential losses.

Iavarone and his partner, Richard Schiavo, plan on tapping the stock markets and the deep pockets of corporate heavyweights to get the cash, using an untested business model that is already paying huge returns.

"Right now, there's very little outlay, very little upside to the way most investors get into horses," Iavarone said. "We think we can give more people a chance to make more money on horses with our model."

IEAH purchased a 75 percent interest in Big Brown for about $3 million from Paul Pompa Jr. after the colt's first race. Pompa bought Big Brown for $190,000.

Many people involved in limited partnerships or syndicates spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy a share of one horse or a small stable of horses. That leaves them captive to the performance of only a few horses with little option for diversity.

But investors "want to get in and out of their positions depending on how they are doing," said Iavarone, who founded IEAH to buy, breed and race horses on a larger scale.