Ghostzapper's fee: $200K

Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year, will start his stud career in 2006 with one of the world's most expensive stud fees. Owner Frank Stronach's Adena Springs operation, which will stand Ghostzapper, has announced a $200,000 fee for the 5-year-old Awesome Again horse.

Ghostzapper's fee doesn't threaten Storm Cat's status as most expensive North American sire at $500,000, Storm Cat's fee in 2005, and Lane's End stallions A.P. Indy and Kingmambo both stood at $300,000 this year. But Ghostzapper's fee places him among the most expensive. Other sires with similar fees in 2005 included Giant's Causeway ($200,000), Fusaichi Pegasus ($150,000), and Gone West ($150,000), all of whom have runners. Ghostzapper's $200,000 fee will almost certainly make him the most expensive first-year sire in 2006.

Ghostzapper won last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, the 2005 Metropolitan Handicap, and four other graded stakes before retiring earlier this summer. At Adena Springs, he joins his sire, the popular stallion and 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again, who stood last year for $125,000. Ghostzapper is a son of Baby Zip, making him a half-brother to Grade 1 winner City Zip.