Twenty years ago, Ghostzapper lived up to a family legacy when he bested one of the strongest Breeders’ Cup Classic fields assembled, leading home Roses In May – subsequent winner of the Dubai World Cup – by three lengths in a record-setting performance at Lone Star Park. Defending Classic and World Cup winner Pleasantly Perfect was third, and the also-rans in the field of 13 included 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, and dual classic winner and champion Funny Cide. That Classic win locked up the 2004 Horse of the Year title for Ghostzapper, whose five other graded stakes wins included a gutsy performance in the Grade 1 Woodward over 2002 Horse of the Year Saint Liam and the prestigious Metropolitan Handicap. The brilliant bay’s association with the Breeders’ Cup didn’t end with his championship-clinching win, however. He is the sire of multiple Breeders’ Cup winners and Eclipse Award champions, and is expected to be represented by a champion at this weekend’s edition at Del Mar, where his growing influence as a broodmare sire will be on display as well. Last Saturday, a week before this Classic, Ghostzapper, already sporting a fluffy winter coat, stood before a few dozen admirers outside the stallion barn at Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa Farm in Paris, Ky. He looked well-prepared for his upcoming trip, as he is soon to ship to owner-breeder Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs North in Aurora, Ontario, for the twilight of his stud career and eventual pensioning. :: ON SALE NOW: DRF Breeders' Cup Packages! Get everything you need to win and save 41% off the retail price. “We can’t say enough about him. We’re going to miss him terribly,” the farm’s Angie Sikura told the assembled crowd at the farewell event. “We feel like he has served the Thoroughbred business pretty well and that his legacy will live on.” Ghostzapper, 24, will cover a limited book in 2025, anchored by Adena mares, for what the operation has suggested is his final season. The stallion, who has three winning 2-year-olds from his current crop, will have a few more Kentucky crops in the pipeline. He covered 81 mares in 2022, for the season representing current yearlings, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. He covered 74 mares last year, and 42 in what proved his final Kentucky season. “Mr. Stronach has a great affection for the horse and wishes to have him at Adena,” Hill ‘n’ Dale owner John Sikura said in announcing the move. With fellow Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Hall of Famer Curlin looking on from a nearby paddock at Hill ‘n’ Dale, Ghostzapper stood calmly, playing with his lead shank, as admirers bid a Kentucky farewell – ranging in age from an infant, unsteadily patting him on his wooly neck, to veteran breeders who extolled his accomplishments. And they are many. Ghostzapper is the sire of 121 stakes winners, 61 of those graded/group winners, to date, and eight champions in both the United States and Canada. His leading runners include two-time Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner and dual Eclipse Award champion Goodnight Olive; and fellow Filly and Mare Sprint winner and divisional champion Judy the Beauty. Ghostzapper will seek to add to his Breeders’ Cup résumé this weekend with multiple graded stakes winner Moira in the Filly and Mare Turf. The Canadian Horse of the Year, winner of classics in the Queen’s Plate and Woodbine Oaks, was third in last year’s Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita, beaten just more than a length. In three starts this season, she won the Grade 2 Beverly D. Stakes at Colonial, sandwiched between Grade 1 runner-up efforts in the Diana at Saratoga and E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. The stallion’s other standouts have included Queen’s Plate winner and Canadian champion Shaman Ghost, who also was a Grade 1 winner; Queen’s Plate winner and champion Holy Helena; and Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide. Shaman Ghost, who will stand alongside his sire at Adena North, and Kentucky stallion Mystic Guide, whose first foals arrived this year, are among Ghostzapper’s six sons advertised at stud. But greater than his sons in production, Ghostzapper has made a mark as a broodmare sire, with runners out of his daughters including Triple Crown winner and champion Justify and fellow Eclipse champions Drefong and Up to the Mark. The 31 stakes winners out of his daughters include this fall’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile candidate East Avenue. Justify, a multi-continent, multi-surface threat for the international Coolmore group, and Drefong, who stands in Japan, have extended this influence globally, and are both the sires of Breeders’ Cup contenders. Justify’s five pre-entrants are led by European champion City of Troy, among the Classic favorites. Drefong is the sire of Mile candidate Geoglyph. Ghostzapper was one of four Breeders’ Cup winners sired by Stronach’s homebred Awesome Again, who himself defeated an outstanding field winning the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classic, edging out dual classic winner, champion, and Hall of Famer Silver Charm in second and multiple Group 1 winner and European champion Swain in third. The field included another Hall of Famer in Skip Away, and Belmont Stakes winners Touch Gold and Victory Gallop. Although Awesome Again died in 2020, he is still prominent in the pedigrees of many runners and is set to have an influence on this Breeders’ Cup – not only through his son Ghostzapper, but through others. He is the broodmare sire of Classic entrant Highland Falls, winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup; and marathon specialist and fellow Classic hopeful Next. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.