[6] Green Forest made his first appearance in the Prix de Debut over 800 metres at Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse in May and won narrowly from the Irish-bred Maelstrom Lake with the first two finishing well clear of the other runner.
Gibert successfully restrained the colt towards the rear of the field before producing a strong late run and failed by half a length to catch Maelstrom Lake.
As in the Prix du Bois, Green Forest refused to settle for Gibert in the early stages but finished strongly to overtake Zino in the last 200m and won going away by one and a half lengths.
[6] Green Forest's form in the early part of 1982 was sub-par, possibly as a result of the fact that, like many of Fustok's horses he had been treated with excessive doses of a "worming vaccine" which disrupted his training.
He made his debut in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains over 1600 metres at Longchamp on 25 April when he started favourite against eight opponents and finished fourth behind Melyno, Tampero, and Day Is Done.
Three weeks later, Green Forest ran in the Prix du Moulin at Longchamp against a field which included The Wonder, Melyno, and the British-trained favourite Sandhurst Prince, the winner of the Waterford Crystal Mile.
The British colt set an extremely fast pace, which had many of the runners struggling at halfway, but Gibert settled Green Forest in third place before making his challenge 400m from the finish.
[7] In the official International Classification for 1981, Green Forest was rated the best two-year-old in Europe, three pounds ahead of Dewhurst Stakes winner Wind and Wuthering.
[6] In the International Classification for 1982, Green Forest was the highest-rated French-trained racehorse and the joint-second-best horse in Europe, one pound behind Golden Fleece and equal with Assert and Kalaglow.
[9] Green Forest was exported to the Dashmesh Stud Farm in Punjab, India in 1995, where he sired the Multiple Classic winner Bonzer in his first Indian crop.