News

Takeover to leapfrog the greats

28th Apr 2009

The Daily Telegraph - Ray Thomas - Wednesday, 29 April 2009

CHAMPION sprinter Takeover Target is poised to smash the $6million prizemoney barrier and climb higher on the all-time list of Australian racing's greatest earners if he wins at Morphettville on Saturday.

Takeover Target is chasing his 21st race success and eighth at Group One level in the $300,000 The Goodwood Handicap (1200m).

Joe Janiak's superstar clearly is classes above his rivals and not surprisingly is rated a dominant $1.80 favourite in early TAB Fixed Odds markets with the next in betting, I Am Invincible, rated an $11 chance.

Barring bad luck or some other unforeseen circumstance, Takeover Target should collect the $190,950 first prize cheque, which will take his career earnings beyond $6million, a phenomenal haul for a sprinter.

Takeover Target will vault over Octagonal ($5.89million) into sixth place on the all-time list with the promise of more to come when he campaigns in Singapore next month and at England's Royal Ascot carnival in June.

The evergreen champ flies from Adelaide to Singapore for next month's KrisFlyer International (1200m) before a fourth UK campaign.

Takeover Target is racing in superb form, producing the most complete Group One performance of the season to thrash a small, but select, field in the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick earlier this month.

The rising 10-year-old is the cult hero of Australian racing and attracted a huge audience for his first trackwork appearance at Morphettville yesterday.

"Every man and his dog was there," Janiak said. "They haven't seen a horse of his calibre here for a while, so they are all pretty excited about it.

"He worked good. But it was very hard to judge because the track was heavy, they were getting right into it and it was pretty cut up by the time that he galloped."

Top Adelaide jockey Simon Price rode Takeover Target in his track gallop yesterday, describing the experience as "a real privilege".