When news came down that NFL star Travis Kelce had bought into Woodbine-based gelding Swift Delivery, horse racing social media exploded with excitement. The slight grey gelding, a winner of his last two races, had apparently been named for Kelce’s famous partner, Taylor Swift, by previous owners D J Stable.
The best part of the media frenzy was that Swift Delivery was making his stakes debut in the $125,000 Toronto Cup presented by Crown Royal on Saturday and was the overwhelming favourite.
Unfortunately for the masses who may have flocked to Woodbine to catch a glimpse of the horse (neither Kelce nor Swift, of course, were at Woodbine), Swift Delivery could only get up for second behind upsetter PIPER’S FACTOR, who was trying turf for the first time.
On an E.P. Taylor turf course that was soaked with rain, the seven-horse field was led early by Babbo, last year’s Coronation Futurity winner. Piper’s Factor briefly pressed the front runner before settling into a stalking position under Sofia Vives, who became a journeyman rider a week ago. Patrick Husbands, riding Swift Delivery, trailed the leader by some six or seven lengths halfway through the one-mile race.
Into the long stretch run, Piper’s Factor, trained by Katerina Vassilieva, darted to a clear lead three furlongs from the finish and held off a rally from the favourite to win by 1 3/4 lengths at 7 to 1. True North Stables’ Dresden Row was along for third and the time was 1:36.09.
It was the first stakes win for the homebred son of The Factor – Piper’s Future by Niigon after his brief trek to the King’s Plate fizzled after flops in the Marine Stakes (G3) and Plate Trial.
“We had tried working him on the turf a few weeks ago, and it was a little bit off and yielding like it is today,” said Vassilieva. “He worked really well over it, so that gave us a lot of confidence. He’s got some breeding that would tell us he has an affinity for turf, so we were going into it with a little bit of confidence.”
Piper’s Factor has three wins from 10 starts and earnings of $240,443.
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