The Green Monkey, who sold for a record $16 million as a
juvenile and never won a race, is back in the news after siring his first
winner. His juvenile daughter Kinz Funky Monkey did the honors in Saturday’s
2ND race at Del Mar.
Owned by Always Believe Inc. and trained by Peter Eurton, the 7-1 shot
pressed the pace, fought gamely to strike the front, and held on by a neck.
Victor Espinoza guided the dark bay through 5 1/2 Polytrack furlongs in 1:04
3/5.
Kinz Funky Monkey, an $82,000 OBS April two-year-old in training purchase,
was making her third start. Third to Beholder in her July 22 debut, she missed
by a half-length next time on August 11 to Midnight Ballet.
The Florida-bred is out of the More Than Ready mare Pretty Ready, who is in
turn a half-sister to stakes winners Whoozie and Royal Fanfare.
Appropriately, Kinz Funky Monkey was bred by Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds.
Randy Hartley and Dean De Renzo had pinhooked The Green Monkey with such
incredible success, and now stand him at their Ocala, Florida, farm.
The Green Monkey famously sparked a bidding war between Coolmore and
Sheikh Mohammed’s respective representatives at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Calder
Sale, which ended in favor of Coolmore’s Demi O’Byrne. By then the price had
skyrocketed to a world record for a Thoroughbred at public auction.
The Forestry colt was
given a doubly significant name. The Green Monkey is a golf course at the Sandy
Lane Hotel in Barbados, part-owned by Coolmore principals John Magnier, Michael
Tabor and Derrick Smith, but it also happened to be the animal associated with
his birth year (2004) in the Chinese calendar.
Sent to trainer Todd Pletcher,
The Green Monkey pulled a muscle and didn’t make it to the races until the fall
of his three-year-old season. He finished a distant third in his debut at
Belmont Park, and fourth back at Big Sandy, before ending his brief career with
another fourth in a turf maiden at Hollywood Park.
Not passing muster to join Coolmore’s stallions at Ashford Stud, he returned to his native Florida to stand
at Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds.
The Green Monkey was virtually coming full circle. The Hartley/De Renzo
partnership bought back a half-interest to stand the colt, and De Renzo told the
Blood-Horse at the time that, according to the terms of the deal, The Green
Monkey would transfer to Ashford if his progeny were successful. His 2012 stud
fee was $5,000.
The Green Monkey was produced by the winning Unbridled mare Magical
Masquerade, a half-sister to multiple Grade 2-winning juvenile Magicalmysterycat
as well as to Grade 2 heroine Burmilla. They are out of multiple Grade 2 queen
Nannerl and hail from the family of multiple Grade 1 star Fact Finder.
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