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. He was purchased for A$1,250 plus $125 GST in July 2003 and earned $6,028,311 in prize money. Racing career 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. He did not make his debut until he was a four-year-old. He was unbeaten in all of his starts in 2004 and set a seven-race winning run following his debut on 23 April 2004 in a 1,200 metre maiden race at Queanbeyan Racecourse. These wins included victory in the listed Pacesetter Stakes at Gosford Racecourse, the listed Ramornie Handicap at Grafton Racecourse, and the Group 1 Salinger Stakes at Flemington Racecourse in October of that year. Takeover Target then endured two injuries which kept him out of racing for a further six months. He pulled up lame after winning a barrier trial at the Gold Coast Racecourse in late November 2004 while being prepared for two stakes races at Doomben Racecourse, then had a piece of infected bone removed from a hoof while being prepared for the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival in 2005. In 2005, he failed to win in six starts before a first-up win in December at Doomben Racecourse in the Group 3 Summer Stakes, winning by more than five lengths carrying 59.5 kg while breaking the 1,200 metre track record previously held by Lion Hunter with a time of 1:07.88. He followed this up with another win in the listed Doomben Stakes, winning by three lengths carrying 60.5 kg and running within four one-hundreds of a second of the 1,350-metre track record held by Falvelon. In the early part of 2006, Takeover Target won two Group 1 races, the Lightning Stakes and the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington Racecourse, becoming only the third horse behind Black Onyx and Shaftesbury Avenue to carry at least 57 kg to victory in the Newmarket Handicap in the last thirty-six years. He also became only the second