By Bill Finley

The Green Monkey (Forestry), the most expensive horse ever sold at auction, was euthanized in May due to laminitis.

The story was first reported by Paulick Report. The horse had been residing at Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds in Ocala, Fla.

The Green Monkey was far better known for what he accomplished in the auction ring than what he did on the racetrack. He went into the ring at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Calder Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, where he worked an eighth of a mile in 9 4/5 seconds. That was among the reasons a bidding war between Coolmore and Darley took place with both entities determined to acquire the then 2-year-old. Eventually, Darley folded and Coolmore purchased the colt for $16 million.

He was purchased a year earlier at the Fasig-Tipton 2005 Kentucky Select Sale by partners Randy Hartley and Dean De Renzo. For them, the 2006 sale turned out to the biggest pinhooking success in racing history.

The Green Monkey didn’t live up to his price tag on the racetrack. Trained by Todd Pletcher, he started three times and his best finish was a third-place showing in his debut, a 2007 maiden race at Belmont. After finishing fourth in a turf maiden at Hollywood Park, he was retired. His career earnings were $10,440.

“He was doing excellent, and then probably a year and a half ago, he foundered,” Randy Hartley told Paulick Report. “We just struggled with him ever since, trying to do everything we could to get him right. It just got to the point where it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

The Hartley/De Renzo team bought back into the horse and stood him at stud. He had 46 foals of racing age. He had a champion in Puerto Rico in Green Money. His top earning horse was Green Doctor, a filly who won seven races and earned $335,351. Her biggest win came in the 2014 Fanfreluche S. at Woodbine.

Hartley told the Paulick staff that The Green Monkey has been buried on their farm.

“Nobody will have his stall or anything, it’s a special place,” he said. “There will never be another horse like him for us. I thank the lord for him.”