Old legs, new worries

The hopes that the great Takeover Target (B g 9, Celtic Swing (GB)-Shady Stream, by Archregent (CAN)) would continue to defy his age, fell back to earth in under a minute at Kranji in Singapore on Sunday night.

Australia’s champion, coming off remarkable Group 1 wins at Randwick and Morphettville in the past month, was struggling before the field turned into the 400-metre straight in the KrisFlyer (1200m) – a Singaporean Group 1 but not given the same status internationally – and the doubts about his future are now as big as the “are you hurting?” questions jockey Jay Ford was asking during the race, and again after it, when he wondered how his favourite horse would be when he cooled down.

Trainer Joe Janiak is not one for hasty decisions, and has until Saturday to decide if Takeover Target will  fly on  to Royal Ascot in England to run in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (1200m) to try for a breakthrough after finishing second, third and fourth in his other trips, which also included a win in the then Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) in 2006.

If TT does go it will be in hope rather than with confidence – hope that, unlike at Kranji, the track is not too hard and that he can be nursed to the starting gates as he was in The Goodwood (1200m) in Adelaide. Chiropractor Gary Christou, a good mate of Janiak and a regular travelling companion of TT, said at Morphettville: “He’s 9½ years old. We worry about his legs (because) he puts in 110 per cent every time … is he going to finish in one piece?”

Before Ascot is confirmed, that question, surely, will be the one Janiak asks – not, “We’re halfway there, our expenses are being paid, should we keep going?”

If the horse does make the trip it might be simply as a hugely valuable publicity tool for the Royal Ascot meeting, even if he is scratched on race eve. He won’t start if Janiak is concerned about him breaking down because the whole TT fairytale, from dispersal sale buy for $1250 (plus GST) in 2003, through world trips and eight Group 1 wins, has been built around Janiak’s care of  (and caring for) what was an unwanted gelding.

Whether it is go and run, or go and not run, or come home, the evidence is that youth has gone past our champ – at least outside these shores – and Australian-bred youth at that. The Krisflyer winner, Hong Kong’s  Sacred Kingdom (B g 2003, Encosta De Lago-Courtroom Sweetie, by Zeditave), has been ranked the world’s champion sprinter for the past two seasons and, after a period in the wilderness is back on his pedestal after his scorching win in one minute 7.8 seconds, almost a second faster than Takeover Target ran in winning last year. Hong Kong-based Australian Brett Prebble, who rode Sacred Kingdom, told the South China Morning Post that his mount should go to Ascot for the Golden Jubilee: “My advice would be to go, without reservation. He’ll give them some swish over there, I promise you.”

And this time next year – or even in the International Sprint at Sha Tin in Hong Kong in December – yesterday’s runner-up, Singapore’s Rocket Man, will give Sacred Kingdom “some swish”.

Rocket Man (Br c 3, Viscount-Macrosa (NZ), by McGinty), a $60,000 buy at the Magic Millions Winter Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast in 2007, was seven from seven at Kranji before going under by a neck. “Now that he’s had a battle like that, I’m looking forward to a rematch.” said Robbie Fradd, RM’s jockey. South African Fradd used to ride Hong Kong champion Fairy King Prawn (B g 1995, Danehill (USA)-Twiglet, by Twig Moss (FR)), so he knows his onions.

Sacred Kingdom was sold for $200,000 by his breeders (Andy and Julia Calvert and Andy’s mother Noel, of Kornang Stud Farm near Streatham in Western Victoria) at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne in 2005. Trained by Ricky Yiu, the gelding has won 11 from 17 and has earned almost $HK22 million (about $A4.4 million), after a name change from Jumbo Star – he trialled in Sydney under that name.

Whether Sacred Kingdom or Rocket Man (earnings of about $S900,000 – about $A800,000) can top TT’s $6 million matters not – their stories will never match Takeover Target’s. With or without another chapter, it is pure gold.

NOTE: Eliza Park has withdrawn Sweet Octagonal (by Octagonal), an eight-year-old half-sister to Sacred Kingdom, from the Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne, but the stud will offer Sweet Octagonal’s Delago Brom weanling filly on Tuesday afternoon as Lot 302.