Opening the url of the slider images in new window?

[ozgrgvn]

Is there a way to have one of the slider images' link to be opened in a new window?

(target="_blank" didn't work on functions.php)

[mscir]

I tried to get this working too. Here's how I did it:

/* original code commented out:
$item_output = '<a' . $attributes .' style="background: url(\'' . $thumbnail. '\') repeat scroll 0%;">';
*/
/* replacement code: */
$item_output = '<a target="_blank" ' . $attributes .' style="background: url(\'' . $thumbnail. '\') repeat scroll 0%;">';

It looks good in the source code, e.g.:

<a target="_blank" href="http://retrometro.com/maps/maps_sc.php" style="...') repeat scroll 0%;">Santa Cruz Map</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.retrometro.com/food" style="...') repeat scroll 0%;">Food</a>

But the links still open in the same window.
Is there a javascript function somewhere overriding this?
Mike