Takeover Target has come out of the Group I July Cup with a career ending injury with a cracked cannon bone in a hind leg after finishing seventh in the Newmarket feature.  Racingpost.com has reported, that Takeover Target was undergoing surgery after the race at the Newmarket Veterinary Hospital.  They added that Joe Janiak and Jay Ford were too distressed to talk.
  Takeover Target raced on the speed in the Newmarket feature and faded as the field began the climb up the hill in the run to the post. 

The race was won with an all-the-way effort from the filly Fleeting Spirit (Invincible Spirit - Millennium Tale by Distant Relative).  Although she did shift ground over the final furlong the team were able survive the protest and claim the trophy.

Australia’s other contender, Scenic Blast the race favourite, didn’t appear to handle the lack of early speed and never settled under Steve Arnold.   When Arnold asked him for his effort he couldn’t reproduce his King’s Stand sprint and finished a well-beaten 10th.

The placegetters were Main Aim and the South African-trained sprinter J J The Jet Plane.

Fleeting Spirit, known in the stable as ‘mouse’ was offered at the 2006 Goffs Sportsman Yearling sale when she was purchased by Con Marnane for €35,000.  She was then re-offered the following year at the 2007 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale when knocked down to Anthony Stroud Bloodstock for 90,000 gns.   The following year she was entered for the Tattersalls December Mares sale, but was withdrawn, no doubt she was showing her turn of speed to her trainer Jeremy Noseda.

Noseda, revealed he hadn’t planned on running Fleeting Spirit in the July Cup after her strong finishing second to Scenic Blast in the King’s Stand Stakes.  But a good report from the fillies trackwork rider convinced him otherwise and she repaid his faith and delivered a career best performance.

Permalink| Jul 12, 2009

Comments are closed.