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Champion Australian sire Snitzel has broken into the list of the 10 most expensive stallions at stud worldwide.

His 2018 fee of $A220,000 placed him ninth on the top 10 list covering sires that stood in the southern hemisphere in the second half of 2018 and those standing in the northern hemisphere in 2019.

Darley’s US-based sire Medaglia D’Oro, who stood his last southern hemisphere season in NSW in 2017 on a fee of $A110,000, is the only other stallion to have served in Australia in the last decade to make the top ten compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Nancy Sexton.

The long serving shuttler, now based permanently in Kentucky, tops the Darley roster at Jonabell Farm in 2019 on a fee of $US200,000.

Gone from the top 10 list are Snitzel’s sire Redoute’s Choice and Coolmore’s Fastnet Rock, bother former multiple winners of Australian sires premierships.

Redoute’s Choice, who reached a fee high of $300,000 10 years ago, stood the 2018 season at Arrowfield Stud for $137,500.

Fastnet Rock, a constant shuttler for Coolmore between Australia and Ireland, reached an advertised fee high of $A275,000 in 2013.

Coolmore kept his fee ‘private for both his southern and northern hemisphere seasons for some five years but he is now being advertised at a fee of only 70,000 euros ($A112,000) for the coming 2019 season in Ireland.

Arrowfield Stud raised Snitzel’s fee to $220,000 for the 2018 Southern Hemisphere season after his amazing results over the preceding 18 months saw him win his first Australian general sires title in 2016-17 with an all-time Australian earnings record of $A16.2 million.

He was also leading sire of 2YOs and 3YOs and equalled Danehill’s record of 26 Australian stakes winners in one season.

Those results paled in 2017/18 when Snitzel broke his own earnings record to win his second sires title with $27 million in earnings and a record number of stakeswinners.

He is out on his own at the top of the sires’ list in Australia once again this season, suggesting that another fee increase will follow for the 2019 season.

That said he still has a way to go to be in the realm of the world’s most expensive stallion, the undisputed champion sire Galileo who not only commands the highest service fee but has two of his champion sons Frankel and Sea The Stars joining him in Nancy Sexton’s Top 10.

1. GALILEO (Sadler’s Wells x Urban Sea by Miswaki)

Standing at Coolmore Stud, Ireland. Fee: Private (Unconfirmed E600,00; $A962,000)

The many superlatives heaped on Galileo don’t do him justice. He has become the benchmark by which excellence in the stallion world is measured and will undoubtedly continue to fill that role long after he ceases to be in active service.

Galileo is primarily the domain of Coolmore and its associates, meaning outside breeders wishing to access his services have to contend with an extraordinary fee.

Although listed as ‘private’ since 2008 recent off-the-record reports suggest it costs in the vicinity of €600,000 ($A962,000) to get an outside mare to the great sire. Given that he has just turned 21 the demand for his services is likely to become even more intense.

In 2018 Galileo picked up another sires' title when his progeny earned £6,868,424 across Britain and Ireland, a figure considered ‘average’ after 2016 and 2017 had both yielded the stallion in excess of £10 million in prize money. That said, his 2018 figure was still £2.8 million ahead of his closest rival Dubawi.

And 2018 was yet another year of landmarks for Galileo as he surpassed the mark of 73 G1 winners set by his own sire Sadler’s Wells with Danehill’s figure of 84 now on the horizon.

He also toppled Sadler’s Wells’ mark of 327 progeny wins in European Pattern races and a pair of British classic winners (Forever Together in the Oaks and Kew Gardens in the St Leger) took that particular tally to 12.

Overall he sired 31 stakes winners in Britain and Ireland (Dubawi was next with 13) and 34 across Europe in total but perhaps the most notable for many reasons was the landmark win by Line Of Duty, among the first Galileo yearlings to be bought at auction by Godolphin, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Galileo also featured as the grandsire of G1 champions Cracksman (Frankel), Enable (Nathaniel), Masar (New Approach) and Cross Counter (Teofilo) and as the dam sire of Saxon Warrior, US Navy Flag, Sistercharlie, Magna Grecia and The Autumn Sun.

It makes that supposed outside fee of 600,000 euros sound a tad cheap, does it not?

2. DEEP IMPACT (Sunday Silence x Wind In Her Hair by Alzao)

Standing at Shadai Stallion Station, Japan. Fee: 40 million yen ($A516,000)

Deep Impact is Japan’s answer to Galileo and is by far the most expensive sire in a country where no expense is spared in the pursuit of breeding excellence.

Deep Impact finished 2018 with his seventh consecutive Japanese sires’ championship including 47 juvenile winners that gave this super sire his eighth champion 2YO sire title.

Yet it was the spread of Deep Impact’s influence as a major international force that was the real story of 2018 along with his not unexpected presence as a broodmare sire of note.

Domestically his results covered the full spectrum from a fourth winner of the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger), top 2YO Danon Fantasy (Hanshin Juvenile Fillies) and star milers Jour Polaire (Victoria Mile) and Keiai Nautique (NHK Mile Cup).

Abroad Deep Impact was represented by English 2000 Guineas hero Saxon Warrior and Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) winner Study Of Man.

Saxon Warrior begins his stud career at Coolmore in Ireland in 2019 adding to the growing list of sons of Deep Impact at stud worldwide, among them Danon Ballade, whose encouraging start prompted his repatriation from the UK to Japan for the 2019 season, Kizuna, Arrowfield shuttler Real Impact and Spielberg.

Deep Impact yearlings are also become a hot commodity at major sales globally. He has had a number of yearlings bred to Australian time appear in major Australian sale catalogues, the result of visionary breeders buying mares in foal or sending their own mares to Japan to be covered to southern hemisphere time.

Not the least in this latter group is Winx’s dam Vegas Showgirl, who recently returned from Japan in foal to Deep Impact.

3. DUBAWI (Dubai Millennium x Zomaradah by Deploy)

Standing at Dalham Hall Stud, UK. Fee: £250,000 ($A446,500)

Darley’s flagship stallion Dubawi hit an important milestone in 2018 when he became the only British-based stallion to reach 100 Group/Graded winners.

They include his 38 G1 winners led by the Newmarket 2000 Guineas winners Makfi and Night Of Thunder, Hong Kong’s star sprinter Lucky Bubbles, the likes of Al Kazeem and Postponed and a pair of Dubai World Cup winners in Monterosso and Prince Bishop.

In 2018 his sextet of G1 winners included a triple by Benbatl in Dubai, Australia and Germany, others in Dubai, the UK and France and perhaps best of all the potential of his 2YO stars Too Darn Hot and Quorto who between them swept the Dewhurst, Solario and National Stakes.

Dubawi’s excellent season saw him finish second on the leading British and Irish sires’ table with just over £4 million in earnings.

4. WAR FRONT (Danzig x Starry Dreamer by Rubiano)

Standings at Claiborne Farm USA. Fee: $US250,000 ($A350,000)

War Front will be standing at $US250,000 for the third successive season although reports have suggested breeders have paid far more to secure a nomination to the stallion as his book is limited to 110 mares a year.

His position as America’s most expensive stallion is a far cry from when he was standing for less than $15,000, a time when those cheap crops produced the likes of Declaration Of War and War Command.

His first crops on fees of $150,000 to $200,000 have yielded the likes of multiple G1 winner US Navy Flag and Fog Of War and War Of Will, who ran first and second in the G1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine.

His other stand-outs of the past season include G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Lancaster Bomber and his imported G1 Underwood Stakes winner Homesman.

Not surprisingly War Front has become a darling of the sale ring, his offerings at Keeneland in September accounting for five million-dollar yearlings up to $2.4 million for a colt purchased by Coolmore’s MV Magnier that made him the most expensive yearling sold in America in 2018.

War Front’s legacy as a sire of sires will be come under scrutiny in 2019 when we see the first runners by his sons Summer Front, Jack Milton and Due Diligence.

5. TAPIT (Pulpit x Tap Your Heels by Unbridled)

Standing at Gainesway Farm USA. Fee: $US225,000 ($A315,500)

Three-time US champion sire Tapit’s fee has dropped to $US225,000 after four years on the country’s highest mark at $US300,000.

Tapit stood his first $300,000 season in 2015 and was kept at that level after his progeny earned a whopping $US19.2 million in 2016.

In 2018 his runners checked in at $US12,864,453, still a very respectable figure that placed him fifth on a leading sires’ list that has become skewed by the Pegasus World Cup.

His stars included Unique Bella, the G1 Clement L Hirsch Handicap and Beholder Mile winner, and Chasing Yesterday, the half-sister to American Pharoah who won the G1 Starlet Stakes.

Tapit’s son Tapizar was also represented by the brilliant Monomoy Girl, one of the three finalists for the US Horse of the Year title.

2019 promises to be a pivotal year for Tapit as the first crops of his other sons Constitution, Tonalist, Tapiture, Normandy Invasion and Race Day take to the track.

6. FRANKEL (Galileo x Kind (Danehill)

Standing at Banstead Manor Stud UK. Fee: £175,000 ($A312,600)

Juddmonte took the decision to raise Frankel’s fee from £125,000 to £175,000 for the 2018 season, and 12 months on the move looks vindicated.

His champion son Cracksman, winner of the G1 Champion Stakes, G1 Coronation Cup and G1 Prix Ganay, led the way among his quartet of G1 winners that ranged from G1-winning miler Without Parole to Call The Wind, winner of the Prix du Cadran. He was also represented in Japan by the G1-winning miler Mozu Ascot.

Frankel’s results have all but silenced his critics as he finished fourth on the leading European sires’ table despite having fewer crops on the ground than many of his rivals.

Few stallions have come under as much scrutiny as Frankel yet it is hard to find fault with the unbeaten champion’s results as he became the quickest European stallion to reach the landmark of 20 Northern Hemisphere Group winners and now has an overall tally of 34 stakes winners from only 420 foals of racing age.

Frankel has three of his yearlings bred to Australian time in this week’s Magic Millions sale at the Gold Coast.

7. MEDAGLIA D’ORO (El Prado x Capuccino Bay by Bailjumper)

Standing at Jonabell Farm USA. Fee: $US200,000 ($A280,000)

When Medaglia D’Oro bid farewell to Australia for the last time at the end of his 2017 shuttle season his progeny were on a high in the Northern Hemisphere.

That year featured seven G1 winners, a hard act to follow, but his 2018 highlights were mopre than satisfactory.

They included Wonder Gadot’s sweep of the Queen’s Plate and Prince Of Wales’s Stakes following her runner-up effort to Monomoy Girl in the Kentucky Oaks; Bolt d’Oro acquitting himself well against a monster in Justify in the G1 Santa Anita Derby while Elate fell only a neck short of Abel Tasman in the G1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.

All the while his influence continues to extend into the next generation as his son Violence ended 2018 as America’s leading second-crop sire while his daughters were responsible for the G1 Belmont Oaks heroine Competitionofideas and two other G1 performers during the year.

Now the sire of 21 G1 winners, among them the champions Rachel Alexandra and Songbird, Medaglia d’Oro will cover a strong book of mares in 2019 that includes G1 winners Unique Bella, American Gal, Forever Unbridled, Lemons Forever and Dayatthespa.

8. CURLIN (Smart Strike x Sherriff’s Deputy by Deputy Minister)

Standing at Hill ’n’ Dale Farm USA. Fee: $US175,000 ($A245,000)

Curlin’s switch to Hill ’n’ Dale Farm in 2016 resulted from the sale of a 20 percent share in the horse for approximately $US6.2 million. Curlin had just completed his seventh season at Lane’s End Farm that year on a fee of only $US35,000.

He has since been on a rapid upward spiral with the 2019 fee for the two-time US Horse of the Year up from $150,000 in 2018.

The rising fees reflect the shift in gear for Curlin’s stud career that began in 2015 when Keen Ice lowered the colours of American Pharoah in the G1 Travers Stakes, Stellar Wind captured the first of her six G1 races and Curalina took the G1 Acorn Stakes and G1 Coaching Club American Oaks.

That momentum continued unabated in 2016 with Exaggerator landing the G1 Preakness Stakes and Haskell Invitational, Connect taking the G1 Cigar Mile and Good Magic and Solomini running first and second in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Good Magic was again among the leading acts of 2018 winning the Haskell Invitational and running second to Justify in the Kentucky Derby.

Curlin is now well established among Kentucky’s elite and has an increasingly important influence with a growing number of sons now carving out their own careers at stud, having him poised to assume a greater standing.

9. SNITZEL (Redoute’s Choice x Snippets’ Lass by Snippets)

Standing at Arrowfield Stud Australia. Fee: A$220,000

Snitzel continues to rewrite the history books in Australia.

The Arrowfield resident won his first sire championship in 2017 with an all-time record Australian earnings of $16.2 million and that same year led the way among all 2YO and 3YO sires while equalling Danehill’s record of 26 Australian stakes winners.

In 2017-18 season, aided by Redzel’s win in the inaugural $10 million Everest and his other G1 winners Estijaab, Trapeze Artist and Russian Revolution, Snitzel smashed the Australian earnings record with a figure $29,243,613, some $13 million more than his closest rival I Am Invincible.

He was also Australia’s leading sire of 2YOs and 3YOs, leading sire by number of winners and also stakes winners.

As a result Arrowfield raised Snitzel’s fee to $220,000 for the 2018 season and with Redzel’s second win in The Everest in October laying a healthy foundation, he is already heading for a third title and a further fee rise for 2019 on the cards.

10. SEA THE STARS (Cape Cross x Urban Sea by Miswaki)

Standing at Gilltown Stud Ireland. Fee: €135,000 ($A216,000)

2018 was arguably a personal best for Galileo’s half brother Sea The Stars with the Tsui family’s homebred represented by two of the leading lights of the British scene in Sea Of Class and Stradivarius.

Sea Of Class made a rapid rise through the ranks to win the Irish and Yorkshire Oaks before falling agonisingly short of Enable in the Arc, while Stradivarius swept the inaugural Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million winning the Yorkshire, Ascot Gold, Goodwood and Lonsdale Cups and then sign off his year with a victory in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot.

Their achievements helped provide Sea The Stars with European earnings of close to £6 million, enough to see him finish third on the European sires’ table with the encouraging notion that the best is probably yet to come even if he has to compete in the shadow of his illustrious older sibling.

Sea The Stars already had two British classic winners to his credit (Harzand; Taghrooda) alongside German Derby winner Sea The Moon, who himself made a highly promising start to his stud career with his first 2YOS in 2018.

THE $150,000 CLUB - US Triple Crown winner Justify claims the honour of being the most expensive stallion to retire to stud worldwide in 2019.

His 2019 fee has been set at $US150,000 ($A210,000) at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Other US sires standing for $150,000 are Scat Daddy’s son Into Mischief at Spendthrift Farm and Quality Road at Lane’s End Farm with both being rapidly ascendant stallions whose fees could well hit the top 10 in 2020.