Janiak Mk2 meets a target

It’s a long road to a Group 1 win, and one most trainers never travel. Ben Janiak has been there, as a strapper and part-owner with father-trainer Joe Janiak and Australia’s fairytale horse, Takeover Target.

Ben Janiak, 26, took the first step on his own with his debut winner, Padgino, in a lowly rating 0-67 race, the Hume Event Hire Handicap (1000m), on opening day of the Albury Gold Cup carnival yesterday.

Padgino (B g 7, Perugino (USA)-Ribhinn (Celtic Spirit (NZ)) paid $45 on the NSW TAB, blowing most punters out of the quadrella in the first leg and blowing Janiak away.

“This is my first winner. This is only the second horse that I’ve started,” he said, not wanting to talk about the other. “It was no good – we’ll leave that out.”

Janiak can thank a super rails hugging ride from Albury jockey Brendan Ward for the win, Padgino coming from last at the top of the straight to nab the leader, Ivory’s Image, on the line.

“I’m a full-time trainer now,” said Janiak, who has four horses in work. “I’m based in Canberra. Dad’s got his own stable in Coffs Harbour (stables he bought with Takeover Targets’s earnings) and I’m on my way in Canberra. I’ve been on my own now probably nine months, and (I have) all outside owners.”

Padgino’s owner is Victorian businessman Phil Sly, the big backer of successful trainer Leon Corstens at Romsey, north of Melbourne.

Takeover Target was stabled at Corstens’ stables when Joe (and Ben) Janiak last brought him to Melbourne, and Ben said he met Sly on a trip to New Zealand with NZ Bloodstock. “He asked me if I wanted the horse, and I said I’d take it on.”

Padgino campaigned unsuccessfully in Perth in the spring after a handful of Victorian country wins and was having his first run since Melbourne Cup day when he was ninth of 10 at Ascot. Yesterday was his 46^th start, his sixth win. He earned $6500, and he has a career earn of $58,910. Takeover Target (B g 9 Celtic Swing (GB)-Shady Stream, by Archregent (Can)) has won 19-37, including Group 1s at home and abroad, and has earned more than $5.5 million. He cost only $1400 at a dispersal sale.

Ben Janiak has been part of the Takeover story since he took time off his job as a brickie’s labourer to help his father with the horse for his maiden win, at Queanbeyan in April 2004.

Ben said he had learned from watching his father and from travelling the world with Takeover Target, but he said he would not be going on the nine-year-old’s planned farewell tour (his fourth) to England for this year’s Royal Ascot meeting. “I can’t get away. I’m too committed to where I am at the moment,” he said. “The ball is starting to roll for me.”

When Ben got his licence, Joe said: “I’m proud of him and I hope he has success. He knows all about the hardships involved in training and if he needs it, I’ll help him as much as I can.”

The new winner’s comment yesterday? “I hope I don’t have to wait as long as he did for a Group 1 horse, but I’m just trying to build the stable up and get a little bit more quality in the joint – your name needs to be in the paper to get that quality.”