Green With Envy?

There is a wonderful summing-up of what $16 million could buy you in terms of Derby horses on ESPN.com; among the highlights:

• All 20 of this year’s Kentucky starters would cost much, much less. Based on actual auction prices and estimates on the homebreds, maybe about 13 million give or take a few bags of feed.
• The 8 most-expensive horses to ever run in the Kentucky Derby — combined. Even though that would have netted you 2000 champ Fusaichi Pegasus and 2004 runner-up Lion Heart, their combined Derby Day earnings of $1,358,400 still leaves you about $14.6 mil in the hole. God bless breeding rights!
• All 24 Kentucky Derby winners purchased at auction since 1960, for a mere $6.2 million — leaving you $9.8 million of beer money (which might buy two or three watered-down rounds on Derby Day).

Or, you may have purchased The Green Monkey instead. I feel that should be up there with ‘you have died of dysentery‘ (one for all you old-school Oregon Trail fans, of course) as far as memes go.

There are some other good stories floating around; Tiago makes the New York Times today (and you can see pictures of his dam, Set Them Free, hanging out with her friend La Ville Rouge at Mill Ridge Farm here and what a rainy forecast might mean for the Derby is covered here.

Yes, I am stalling before making my final Derby decision.

Minor update: Apparently The Green Monkey’s (rather cheaper) half-sister is no better than he is! Read to the end here.