Rags to Riches isn’t the only Todd Pletcher trainee expected to catch the public eye at Saratoga Race Course during the summer meet.
The Green Monkey, a $16-million purchase at auction, is training well at Belmont Park and, said Pletcher, is on course for his career debut at the Spa.
“He’s coming along good, we’re still hoping to make a race at the end of the meet,” Pletcher said July 30. “He’s got a work coming up this week, but I’m not sure which day yet. He’ll work at Belmont and then we’ll take it from there.”
The 3-year-old son of Forestry shattered the world record for a Thoroughbred sold at public auction when Irish agent Demi O’Byrne purchased the colt for John Magnier of Coolmore Stud, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Florida select sale of 2-year-olds in training at Calder Race Course.
The new owners sent the colt to Pletcher’s stable in April, and the colt shipped into Saratoga last July. But a pulled gluteal muscle that might have occurred during a five-furlong breeze in early August (the colt went in 1:03 2/5), sent The Green Monkey to the sidelines. He was shipped to Ashford Stud, Coolmore’s Kentucky-based farm, to recover and returned to training this March .
Rags to Riches, the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) in 102 years, was scheduled to ship to Saratoga July 31. Pletcher said the daughter of A.P. Indy underwent a complete physical and checked out fine after having been pulled up at the start of a five-furlong workout July 22.
Owned by Tabor and Smith, Rags to Riches could make her next start in the Aug. 18 Alabama Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga.
