Takeover Target (27 September 1999 – 20 June 2015) was a much-travelled Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won top sprinting races in each of the five major cities in Australia as well as in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore.
He was owned and trained by Joe Janiak, a former Queanbeyan, New South Wales, taxi driver, and was ridden by Sydney-based jockey Jay Ford in all but two race starts.
Sired by Celtic Swing out of the unraced dam Shady Stream, Takeover Target was ruled out of racing for thirty months due to leg and joint problems.
In the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse, Takeover Target won by about three lengths, defeating a field which contained Meisho Bowler, Silent Witness, She Is Tosho, Les Arcs, and Benbaun.
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.
Four days later, he finished fourth in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes behind Kingsgate Native despite suffering suspensory ligament damage during the race.
His return to racing in Australia was delayed as a consequence of a stone bruise sustained while being prepared for the Group 1 Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington Racecourse in early November 2008.
He resumed three weeks later in the Group 2 Winterbottom Stakes over 1200 metres at Ascot Racecourse in Perth, Western Australia in what was promoted as an eagerly anticipated rematch with the reigning Australian Champion Sprinter Apache Cat.
[10] Two weeks later, Takeover Target contested the Group 3 A J Scahill Stakes over 1400 metres at Ascot Racecourse, defeating last season's race winner, Tarzi, by almost three lengths.
[11] Two weeks later, Takeover Target contested The Goodwood (G1) over 1,200 metres at Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide, South Australia, where he defeated I Am Invincible by one length.
From Singapore, Takeover Target travelled to England, where he was to contest the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes on 20 June at Royal Ascot, only to be withdrawn on race eve due to an elevated temperature.
After he underwent surgery at the Newmarket Equine Veterinary Hospital to insert five screws in the cannon bone, Janiak officially announced his retirement.
[13] In a career that spanned six seasons, Takeover Target won twenty-one of his forty-one starts, including eight races at Group One level, and accumulated $6,028,311 in prize money, which placed him in sixth position amongst the Millionaire racehorses trained in Australia and the only specialist sprinter in the top twenty at the time of his retirement.