For more than five years Takeover Target inspired hope, joy, excitement and character.

His story captured the imagination of racing fans, but it was the big bay horse himself who won their hearts.

On Saturday at Randwick comes the chance to say goodbye.

The Australian Jockey Club has organised a farewell party for Takeover Target who was retired earlier this year after breaking down in the July Cup at Newmarket in England.

He raced in four countries, five Australian states, at 17 different tracks.

He won races from Queanbeyan, to Grafton, to Flemington in Melbourne Cup week, to England's Royal Ascot.

But fittingly it was at Randwick where he gave his first real hint of what was to come when he scored his maiden city win there in May, 2004.

Owner and trainer Joe Janiak had bought him for $1,250 plus GST as a tried horse almost a year earlier after his previous connections had grown impatient waiting for the gelding with dicky legs to come right.

Call it luck, fate, whatever. It changed Janiak's life.

When he bought Takeover Target, the man who had been involved in racing for almost 40 years and never had a winner in town was living in a caravan at Queanbeyan and driving taxis to pay the bills.

His dreams were modest - he hoped Takeover Target could develop into a handy country sprinter so when he won his first stakes race at his fifth start, Janiak had to pinch himself.

"I am lucky to have had the opportunity to experience this in my lifetime, I've been in the caper for 38 years and never had a horse as good as this but it is all just good luck," he said at the time.

"I am just hoping I'm making all the right decisions."

He was.

Next stop was the Group One Salinger Stakes on Derby Day in 2004.

There is no bigger stage in Australian racing than Flemington in Melbourne Cup week and Takeover Target shone.

It was another year before the gelding won again, this time in Brisbane, but come June 2006, having conquered Australia's best sprinters, Janiak and Takeover Target took on the world.

The knockabout Aussie trainer donned top hat and tails at England's Royal Ascot carnival and he and his horse came away with a victory in the King's Stand Stakes.

Four months later the Takeover Target roadshow landed in Japan and won there too.

The fairytale hit a speed bump shortly after when Takeover Target was scratched from the Hong Kong International Sprint after returning a positive drug test to a banned substance which Janiak had given the horse to help him cope with the stresses of travel.

Janiak put the disappointment behind him and while the pair never returned to Hong Kong they did enjoy more international success, winning the 2008 Singapore KrisFlyer Sprint and finishing second in that year's King's Stand Stakes.

All up Takeover Target raced 41 times for 21 wins, six seconds and four thirds.

His final bank balance stood at more than $6 million.

All those he touched during his five-year racing career will have their own memories, their own special moments, their own special wins.

But one that stands out for those lucky enough to be at Randwick on April 18 this year was his TJ Smith victory.

It wasn't his biggest win. It wasn't his most significant.

But it might have been his best.

In an awesome display of speed, power and athleticism, Takeover Target bounced to the front from his outside gate and gave his rivals - who included another star in Apache Cat - windburn.

The official margin was 2-3/4 lengths but it could have been more.

Not bad for a horse rising ten at the time.

The only ingredient missing from that victory was Jay Ford who for only the second time in the gelding's career wasn't in the saddle on race day.

Janiak had opted for heavyweight jockey Nash Rawiller but Ford copped it on the chin and was back aboard for his next win in the Goodwood in Adelaide.

As it turned out, that race was Takeover Target's Australian swansong.

Two starts later he cracked a cannon bone during the running of the July Cup and it was there in England, thousands and thousands of miles from that caravan park in Queanbeyan, where the dream ended.

Five screws were inserted into the cannon bone to hold it together and Takeover Target was confined to a box in England for several months to recover.

He is back in Australia now, healthy, fat and happy, his job done.

His new life will be in a lush paddock in Coffs Harbour where Janiak lives.

Takeover Target will get the retirement he deserves having given so much.

Saturday is a chance to give a little back and say goodbye.

On what is the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington, the biggest and brightest star will be at Randwick.

Thanks for the memories Takeover.