The news announced that Green Monkey will be returning home to Ocala, Florida to retire to stud at Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds. This young stud was born February 4, 2004, in Ocala, so he's younger than my own little Violet!. He's also from her home town!He is the most expensive horse sold at public auction, going for $16 million at the Fasig-Tipton Calder February 2006 Sale after a bidding wore between Coolmore in Kentucky and Sheik Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley Stud. Coolmore won.
GM's parents are Forestry and Magical Masquerade by Unbridled. He was named after a golf course in Barbados and also because he was foaled in the Chinese year of the monkey.
He hurt his gluteal muscle, so his trainer, Todd Pletcher, didn't run him until September 2007. He ran twice, in September and October, at Belmont. In the first race he finished 3rd, in the second, he finished 4th of 7. In race earnings, he recoupled .0325% of his initial sale tag! Good boy. Just like Violet.
It doesn't matter though because at that level, people are simply buying his ancestry for a stud farm. He turned in blistering fast "sale" workouts, so people knew he would be a good investment even if he wasn't a super winner on the track. He'll be offically at stud in 2009!
Now I mention that he is the most expensive horse sold at public auction, BUT that doesn't mean that there' weren't possibly more expensive sales transactions for Thoroughbreds. People with "that" kind of money often like to do things "privately."