Day a piece of Monkey business went too far; David Ashforth visits the most expensive horse ever sold at auction as he carves out a career with a rather lower profile at stud in Florida.

Byline: David Ashforth

OCALA is a place of horses, Florida's self-proclaimed 'horse capital of the world'. In training centres and farms, stables and studs, horses graze in the fields, stand in their stalls. Off highway 27, northwest of Ocala, past dark brown railings and flocks of white egrets, a walled entrance bears the sign, 'Hartley/De Renzo'.

Beyond the gate, ivy covers the walls of the stallions' spacious stables. Behind them, in the sun, Miguel and Socrates, speaking in Spanish, wash down a dark bay horse, compact and strong, with a big white blaze down its forehead. The Green Monkey, covered in soap suds, plays with his halter, a happy horse. Alfredo Lichoa, the affable Venezuelan stallion manager, looks on. "A very nice looking horse," says Lichoa. "A pity he didn't show his potential." A $16 million pity.

More than three years earlier, on February 19, 2006, Randy Hartley ponied the unraced, unnamed Forestry two-year-old along the dirt track at Calder racecourse. Hartley and his partner Dean De Renzo had bought the colt at Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky yearling sale the previous July, for $425,000. Coolmore's Demi O'Byrne had bought the top lot, by Coolmore's stallion Giant's Causeway, for $650,000.

Kim Wichmann, 'Frosty's' rider at home, set him off on the one-furlong breeze that set the scene for his sale nine days later. "We didn't test horses at home to see how fast they could go," says Wichmann. "He felt good and I left him alone and didn't interfere with him and he did his thing, and he did it perfectly. Everything was perfect. Randy was ponying me back when they announced the time. Neither of us believed it. I had no idea he was that fast, and I didn't think he was going that fast." The clock showed 9.8 seconds for an eighth of a mile. The most expensive seconds in history.

There are no races over one furlong but speed was the ruler in a rich, believing market and, among the many visitors to hip 153's barn were O'Byrne and John Ferguson, emissaries for John Magnier and Sheikh Mohammed. With the spectacular breeze, and the depth of interest, De Renzo expected the well-balanced colt to fetch $3 million, maybe $4 million, but hip 153 became the focus of more than cold commercial calculations. A souring in the relationship between Coolmore and Sheikh Mohammed gave a sharper edge to their familiar, heavyweight, sales-ring battles.

Auctioneer Walt Robertson, Fasig-Tipton's chairman, reminded his audience of hip 153's breeze. "I doubt if anyone has ever seen a better one-eighth performed by a two-year-old in training," he said, before the bidding steadily moved towards $2 million, with a video of the breeze playing in the background. Soon, the action resolved itself into a to-and-fro between O'Byrne, arms folded, and Ferguson, nodding curtly. As $7 million came, and went, the Forestry colt pawed at the ground. On and on until, at $14 million, Ferguson nodded a $1 million raise. The colt, increasingly restless, repeatedly pawed the ground, while hip 154 waited in the wings. It was O'Byrne who made the final, $16 million (then pounds 9.2 million) bid, the highest ever at public auction. "He'd better be good," Coolmore's man remarked. For $16 million, remarkably good.

'Frosty' soon acquired the name of a magnificent Barbados golf course, The Green Monkey, and a champion trainer, Todd Pletcher, but while training at Churchill Downs The Green Monkey injured his spine. He made his belated racing debut, as a three-year-old, in a maiden race at Belmont on September 15, 2007, finishing a well-beaten third. A month later, at the same track, over seven furlongs, The Green Monkey was again well back in fourth. He made his final appearance at Hollywood Park on November 21, on turf, again finishing fourth. The $16 million juvenile retired with earnings of just $10,440.

Coolmore arranged a deal with Hartley and De Renzo under which the breeding rights were shared and The Green Monkey started his breeding career for a humble $5,000 live foal fee, standing at Hartley/De Renzo's Ocala stud.

"He came back here in spring 2008," says Lichoa. "His arrival was supposed to be a secret but the van had only just got here when the phone calls started, from friends. 'Hey, I hear The Green Monkey is there'. The van driver probably said something - 'I got the $16 million horse in my truck'."

Lichoa smiles indulgently. "We have racing fans come to see The Green Monkey and we let them pose with him but this is not a tourist attraction, it is a business.

"When he arrived, there were some physical issues to deal with but he was very smart, the easiest horse to deal with, a quick learner. He is doing very well now, very relaxed, and a good breeder. He is a very masculine horse, very strong, but not aggressive, very well mannered."

This year, The Green Monkey has covered 60 mares, putting 90 per cent of them in foal. "We have had all sorts of mares," says Lichoa, without mentioning names. "Stakes winners, stakes placed horses." He watches The Green Monkey appreciatively, as The Green Monkey placidly watches him. "Look at his bone structure, very strong, very correct, and very well balanced. If he passes it on, there are going to be some very nice babies." A $16 million baby?

CAPTION(S):

The hammer falls on The Green Monkey at $16 million at the Calder breeze-up sales of 2006