The Green Monkey fails to impress

ELMONT, N.Y. - The much anticipated debut of The Green Monkey was much ado about nothing.

The Green Monkey, who set a world record when he sold for $16 million at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton 2-year-old-in-training sales at Calder, finished a non-threatening third in his debut Saturday at Belmont Park. He was beaten seven lengths by Roi Maudit, a homebred son of Elusive Quality owned by Haras Santa Maria de Araras and trained by Bill Mott. Sixthirteen, who set early fractions of 22.18 seconds and 44.90, finished second.

Sent off at 2-5 in a field of six, The Green Monkey raced in third position behind Sixthirteen and Bujagali, raced four wide coming into the stretch, and finished evenly. The final time of the six-furlong race was 1:09.10 over a fast main track.

The Green Monkey, a son of Forestry, was purchased by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier. He is trained by Todd Pletcher.

"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," Pletcher said. "I thought he ran okay considering they went 1:09.10. If you had asked me beforehand if he was ready to go in 1:08-and-four to win, I'd have said probably not. Hopefully, he'll improve having that race under his belt."