Takeover Target

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Takeover Target

Sire	Celtic Swing
Grandsire	Damister
Dam	Shady Stream
Damsire	Archregent
Sex	gelding
Foaled	1999
Country	Australia
Colour	brown
Breeder	Meringo Stud, NSW
Owner	Joe Janiak, Ben Janiak
Trainer	Joe Janiak
Record	33:17-5-4
Earnings	AUD$5,045,868
Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours
Major Racing Wins
Salinger Stakes (G1) (2004) Lightning Stakes (G1) (2006) Newmarket Handicap (G1) (2006) King's Stand Stakes (G2) (2006) Sprinters Stakes (G1) (2006) Doomben 10,000 (G1) (2007) Singapore International Sprint (G1) (2008)
Infobox last updated on: 6th May 2008.

Takeover Target (foaled 1999) is a much travelled Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who has won top sprinting races in Australia, United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore. He is owned and trained by Queanbeyan, New South Wales taxi driver Joe Janiak and has been ridden by Sydney based jockey Jay Ford in all but one race start. He was purchased for $AUD1250 and has earned in excess of $5,000,000 in prizemoney.

Sired by Celtic Swing out of the dam Shady Stream, Takeover Target was ruled out of racing for thirty months due to leg and joint problems, and did not made his debut until he was a four year old. He was unbeaten in all of his starts in 2004 and set a 7-race winning run following his debut on 23 April 2004 in a 1200 metre maiden at Queanbeyan Racecourse. These wins included a victory in the Group 1 Salinger Stakes in October of that year.

In 2005 he failed to win in six starts before a first up win in December at Doomben in the Group 3 Summer Stakes, where he broke the 1200 metre track record with a time of 1:07.88. He followed this up with another win in the listed Doomben Stakes, winning by three lengths carrying 60.5kg and running within four one-hundreds of a second of the 1350 metre track record held by Falvelon.

In the early part of 2006 he continued his good form by winning two Group 1 races, the Lightning Stakes and the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington Racecourse. These wins resulted in Takeover Target being invited to compete in the Royal Ascot carnival in June in the United Kingdom.

Takeover Target's British campaign started successfully by winning the Group 2 King's Stand Stakes on June 20, 2006. He then finished third in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes later that month and seventh in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket, being beaten two lengths. After his King's Stand Stakes win, Takeover Target was declared the best sprinter in the world on turf by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.^{[citation needed]}

From England, Takeover Target travelled to Japan, where he finished second in the Group 2 Centaur Stakes to locally trained mare She Is Tosho. In the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes Takeover Target defeated a field which contained Meisho Bowler, Silent Witness, She Is Tosho, Les Arcs and Benbaun. In Hong Kong, where he was to compete in the Group 1 Hong Kong International Sprint, Takeover Target was withdrawn by stewards on the morning of the race for returning a positive reading to 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone hexanoate, a hormone. The horse was a short priced favourite and, if he had won the race, his connections stood to collect a further $US 1 million bonus in prize money for winning Group 1 races in the Global Sprint Challenge series in three of the four host countries. Instead the horses owner and trainer Joe Janiak was fined 200,000 Hong Kong Dollars by stewards. On International Day in Hong Kong, he was crowned Global Sprint Challenge Champion for 2006, finishing with 53 points, well clear of his closest competitor on 17 points.

Takeover Target's return to racing in Australia in 2007 was delayed, first by an injury sustained in an exhibition gallop at a Queanbeyan race meeting in early March, and then by a virus which forced him to miss the Group 1 T J Smith Stakes at Randwick Racecourse in early April. He resumed the following week in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes at Randwick over 1400 metres where he ran fifth. Takeover Target then finished second in the Group 1 BTC Cup at Doomben followed by a win in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000, defeating the filly Gold Edition. He then headed back to England for the 2007 Royal Ascot carnival.

On June 19 Takeover Target finished fourth in the Group 2 Kings Stand Stakes behind Miss Andretti before finishing second in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes to American bred entrant Soldier's Tale. Takeover Target then returned to Australia and his new home at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales.

Due to the 2007 Australian equine influenza outbreak that spread throughout New South Wales and Queensland in late August, Takeover Target was not able to travel to Victoria to compete in the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Takeover Target resumed racing on December 1, 2007 in a $100,000 Open Handicap race at Randwick. He carried 61kg to defeat Dance Hero, a former Golden Slipper and multiple Group 1 winner. Three weeks later Takeover Target raced again at Randwick in a listed race over 1200 metres in what was dubbed a match race with Dance Hero. Takeover Target held off the late challenge of Scone mare Alverta to win the race. Dance Hero finished last. In the Group 2 Villiers Stakes over 1400 metres, Takeover Target held off the challenge of the former North American trained and Group 1 winner Honor In War to win by a nose with Alverta 2.5 lengths back in third place but lost the race on protest to Honor In War due to interference 200 metres from the finish.

Following a spell, Takeover Target returned to racing on 26 April 2008 in the Group 1 T J Smith Stakes over 1200 metres, finishing third behind multiple Group 1 winner Apache Cat. Takeover Target then travelled to Singapore where he won the Singapore Turf Club’s KrisFlyer International Sprint (G1) over 1200 metres on 18 May 2008 in new track record time of 1:08.8.

Future plans are for him to head to England for a third tilt at the sprint double at Royal Ascot in late June and the July Cup at Newmarket in mid July.

Takeover Target has now won seventeen of his thirty three race starts including six races at Group One level and has accumulated $AUD 5,045,868 in prize money.

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