Takeover Target future in balance after July Cup

TAKEOVER TARGET'S future is in the balance after he cracked a cannon bone in the Darley July Cup at Newmarket on Friday.

The veteran Australian sprint star, whose rags to riches story has captured the hearts of racing fans all over the world, is undergoing surgery on Friday evening at the Newmarket Veterinary Hospital. His trainer Joe Janiak, who was a taxi driver at the time he bought the broken downand unraced Takeover Target for just AUS $1,400, was too distressed to talk. So too was jockey Jay Ford.

Takeover Target, whose 21 wins include the 2006 King's Stand Stakes and seven at Group 1 level, finished a respectable seventh behind Fleeting Spirit, and it was only later that the injury, which is to his near hind, emerged.