RACING is called the Sport of Kings – but it could equally be described as a brutal battle of the billionaires.
Nothing encapsulates that better – and highlights the dangers of it more – than the fascinating case of the most expensive mistake in racing history.
His name was The Green Monkey.
Never tested in an actual race, talk of his potential for greatness spread around the racing world like wildfire.
Two men, one in Ireland and one in Dubai, were listening very carefully.
The Green Monkey’s frightening natural ability was shown in a Florida breeze-up.
Labelled a ‘freak’ by his original owners, he ran a furlong in 9.8 seconds – under ten seconds is considered the equine equivalent of lightning.
The horse entered the sales in February 2006 as a two-year-old with the world at his hooves.
It was there that John Magnier, the business tycoon and former Manchester United shareholder, and Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, tested each other to see who had the strongest nerve… and deepest pockets.
Billionaire Magnier, who has dominated racing around the globe, was no stranger to tough negotiations.
BATTLE WITH FERGIE
He owned Rock Of Gibraltar – the horse that sparked civil war at Old Trafford between Magnier, his business partner JP McManus and Sir Alex Ferguson.
Magnier won that row – and he was to win this one too.
At the Fasig-Tipton sales ring the millions kept totting up and up and up.
The record fee paid for a two-year was obliterated.
The record fee paid for any thoroughbred sold at auction was smashed to smithereens until, eventually, the hammer went down at £11.5MILLION.
Legend has it that Demi O’Byrne, who was doing Magnier’s bidding, had tremors in his hand as he signed the ticket.
“He’d better be good,” he uttered.
A throwaway line? A prayer? Whatever it was, O’Byrne’s comment came back to bite Coolmore in ways they could never have imagined.
On September 15, 2007, The Green Monkey made his debut in a 6f race at Belmont Park in New York.
Sent off as the huge 2-5 favourite, he finished third.
In his next start in October at the same track he finished fourth after going off at evens.
Amazingly, there was to be only one more race.
At Hollywood Park on November 21, 2007, the curtain came down on The Green Monkey’s racing career as he finished fourth again.
He had returned just £5327 prize money on an £11.5m outlay.
SPINE INJURY
A fall during training at Churchill Downs that led to a spinal injury was touted as one possible excuse.
But it seems the real truth of the matter is that in racing, as in sport, there are no sure things.
The same could be said with The Green Monkey’s career at stud.
In racing that’s where the real money is made.
Just look at the recently deceased Galileo.
Estimates of the amount of money he brought owner Magnier vary from half a billion to a billion quid.
But The Green Monkey was nowhere near the £600,000 a pop Galileo reportedly charged at stud.
In fact, he was one hundredth of that, charging around £6000 to cover a mare.
He serviced 40 mares in his first year but there was barely any interest in him after that.
Sadly, The Green Monkey was euthanised in May 2018 after developing laminitis – a painful condition of the hooves.
He was laid to rest at the yard owned by Randy Hartley, who first bought the horse for £306,000 before he was sold to Magnier.
Speaking after his passing aged 14, Hartley said: “He was a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
He was – but for Magnier, for all the wrong reasons.
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