€11m flop: Most expensive horse retired to stud

AT €11 MILLION he was the world’s most expensive horse.

But after just three runs and barely €7,000 in prize money The Green Monkey has been put out to stud.

The horse was bought as a two-year-old by Coolmore, the stud farm owned by John Magnier, Michael Tabour and Derrick Smith in February 2006 at an auction in Miami.

Coolmore landed the horse, the progeny of US stud star Forestry, in a bidding war with Godolphin, the racing operation controlled by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

Interest in the horse was ignited after it sprinted up a furlong in less than 10 seconds.

Following the purchase, which beat the previous record held by Seattle Dancer by €2 million, Coolmore’s agent Demi O’Byrne quipped the horse “better be good”.

The breeding suggested The Green Monkey, who had been called Frosty as a yearling but was renamed after the golf course attached to the plush Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados owned by Magnier’s pal Dermot Desmond, would prove to be another shrewd investment for the “Coolmore mafia”.

The bookies weren’t so sure, with Paddy Power offering 33-1 against it winning the Kentucky Derby.

To recoup their investment on the track, The Green Monkey would have had to set another record. The most money ever won on track in the US was €7m and that benchmark was set by the legendary Cigar.

The career of The Green Monkey did not get to a great start. Just months after the purchase trainer, Todd Pletcher was forced to abandon his two-year-old career after the horse pulled a muscle.

He eventually made his track debut in September last, going a heavily odds-on favour in a six-running field at Belmont, but could finish a well-beaten third.

Two further runs proved no more successful and the owners took the decision to retire The Green Monkey to stud earlier this week.

Coolmore has not said how much each covering with The Green Monkey will cost and it will be a number of years before any of his offspring will race.

To boost his income in the meantime, the stud farm plans to start tours of his stable.

“I think people would like to see him. He’s a pretty special horse. His price was the most expensive in history and he is a part of thoroughbred history,” said Dean De Renzo, who owns the Florida stud farm where he will be based.