The Green Monkey made headlines last spring when he sold for $16 million at the Fasig-Tipton Calder 2-year-olds in training sale, setting a world record for the most expensive horse sold at auction. Purchased by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier, he was sent to trainer Todd Pletcher to race, but due to a number of setbacks, did not race at all during his 2-year-old season. He finally made his career debut in the fourth race at Belmont Park on Saturday, September 15, in a $52,000 maiden special weight for 3-year-olds and upward sprinting 6 furlongs on the main track.
The regally bred son of Forestry out of the Unbridled mare Magical Masquerade was sent off as the 2-5 favorite in a field of six. He balked while loading into the starting gate, and then when the field got underway, was hustled along on the outside by jockey John Velazquez behind the pace set by 5-1 second choice Sixthirteen and 12-1 Bujagali who were contesting the lead down the backstretch through a quarter in 22.18 and a half in 44.90. Entering the stretch, Velazquez already had the whip out on The Green Monkey but the favorite showed no response, as 10-1 Roi Maudit, who had raced to his inside the whole way, easily came through the hole on the rail to take over the lead at the 3/16 pole and win going away by 4 1/2 lengths over Sixthirteen in a time of 1:09.10 over the fast track. It was another 2 1/2 lengths back to The Green Monkey in third.
After the race, trainer Todd Pletcher said, "I didn't think he ran that badly. No real excuse. Obviously, he is a first-time starter and these horses have run before. He didn't do anything wrong; he just couldn't quite get there. He broke okay, got outfooted a little bit, kind of ran evenly through the lane, showed a little interest toward the end, galloped out good. If you had asked me beforehand if he was ready to go in 1:08 4/5 to win, I'd have said probably not. Hopefully, he'll improve having that race under his belt."
