Sunny had a good time at the Aiken Training Track on Wednesday morning. Chirping constantly like a bird, he explored a white truck and then climbed on a wire fence underneath the inside rail.
The tiny monkey also jumped on a visitor, but he didn't stray far from his owner, Cary Frommer.
"He considers me to kind of be his mom," said Frommer, who trains and sells thoroughbreds for a living. "Whatever he does, he always knows where I am."
Sunny is a Geoffroy's marmoset, which also is known as a white-headed or white-faced marmoset. Frommer got him in April while she was at a horse auction in Florida.
"A friend of mine breeds marmosets," Frommer said. "I had to baby-sit him for her, and I got attached. I accepted him in lieu of a commission for a horse that I sold."
Because Sunny was a baby, Frommer had to use a syringe, at first, to feed him formula for premature human infants mixed with rice cereal and applesauce. Recently, however, Sunny began eating fruits, vegetables and yogurt.
"I bring him to the track most mornings just to get him out and about, and I want to socialize him," Frommer said. "He's very sweet."
Sunny, who will weigh about a pound when grown, went with Frommer to a horse sale in Maryland that was held May 18 and 19.
"He was a celebrity there; everybody wanted to see him," she said.
One of the people Sunny met was Bob Baffert, who is a member of Thoroughbred racing's national hall of fame. Baffert also is the trainer of American Pharoah, who will be trying to sweep the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes on June 6 after winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.
"When I saw Bob Baffert and his entourage coming into my barn, I was excited because I had a colt by Pioneerof the Nile, who is the sire (father) of American Pharoah, who had just won the Preakness," Frommer said. "They were nice enough to look at the horse, but they actually were there so Bob's son, Bode, could look at Sunny. He (Sunny) walked on Bode, and he also walked on Mrs. (Jill) Baffert. She was pretty enamored with him, more so than Bode was."
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard.