News

Takeover Target's story set for Hollywood

3rd May 2009

Sydney Morning Herald - Brent Zerafa & Matt Stewart - Monday, 4 May 2009

THE fairytale story that is Takeover Target could be headed for Hollywood with Warner Bros, one of the world's largest producers of film and television, interested in bringing the tale to light.

Trainer Joe Janiak was approached by a Warner Bros representative at Randwick following his T J Smith win two weeks ago and the pair are now in talks about a possible movie on the life of the rags-to-riches galloper.

English film producer Brian Cook is in the process of writing the script for the movie and Janiak indicated Cook was planning to meet with Warner Bros in the coming months.

"They (Warner Bros) have approached me and said they are interested in possibly working on a movie," Janiak said.

"Brian (Cook) has almost finished the script and he is going to talk with them as well."

The story of Janiak, the former taxi driver who bought an older horse for just $1375 and took him on to win some of racing's greatest events, seems a natural fit for a Hollywood blockbuster. While speaking with Janiak about the possibility of a movie deal, the Warner Bros representative suggested he should travel to America with Takeover Target and compete at the prestigious Breeders' Cup meeting in November.

"It is in the pipeline and something that we are seriously considering," Janiak said.

The Breeders' Cup World Championships are the equivalent to Grand Final day for thoroughbreds in North America, with 14 blockbuster races and $US25.5 million in prizemoney.

Takeover Target would line up in the $US1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (1300m).

"It is still early days, we have not confirmed anything just yet," Janiak said. "The guy from Warner Bros said that we should look at taking him there and it looks a suitable race for him on turf.

"It might be a nice trip to go there after England. I am not scared to take him over there."

And why should he be scared? The rising 10-year-old is in the best form of his career.

He is unbeaten this season and showing no signs of slowing down.

Janiak said his global sprint star had pulled up tremendous following his Goodwood win.

Singapore is the next stop and may ultimately be the scene of the toughest challenge of his career.

A dominant winner of the KrisFlyer International Sprint last year, Takeover Target faces two major obstacles in going back-to-back - Rocket Man and Sacred Kingdom.

Rocket Man is Singapore's super horse, Sacred Kingdom Hong Kong's champion sprinter who has already claimed a major Australian scalp.

Sacred Kingdom, who returned to winning form at Sha Tin last Friday, thrashed champion Miss Andretti in the Hong Kong International Sprint in December 2007. Rocket Man is unbeaten in all seven starts, with an aggregate margin of 30.9 lengths and is a clock-smasher.

His past two winning times over 1200m at Singapore's lush Kranji track - 1:08.6 and 1:08.7 - were both faster than Takeover Target's winning KrisFlyer time a year ago.