Swift Delivery looking all too well ahead of Ontario Derby test

Swift Delivery is backed to cement the love story between NFL star Travis Kelce and racing when he goes for Ontario Derby glory at Woodbine in Canada this weekend.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end – also known for being the partner of superstar singer-songwriter Taylor Swift – helped fill a blank space on the horse’s ownership ticket after attending the Kentucky Derby earlier in the year.

Having caught the racing bug at Churchill Downs and being unable to shake it off, the three-time Super Bowl winner joined regular collaborators Gary Barber and Team Valor International, as well as friends Bruce Zoldan and Steven Rocco, as a part-owner of the three-year-old.

The Mark Casse-trained gelding suffered something of a cruel summer in his first stakes appearance, when narrowly denied in the Toronto Cup in late August, but now returns to Tapeta for this shot at Grade Three glory, the surface on which he dazzled when breaking his maiden in June.

It will be Toronto Cup third Dresden Row who is the most likely candidate to play the role of anti-hero at Woodbine, having since tasted success in the track’s Durham Cup, but connections are confident of a bold bid as they seek to get the Kelce era off the mark in style.

“Swift Delivery has got one horse to beat on paper and that’s a horse named Dresden Row,” said Barry Irwin, CEO of Team Valor.

“In our last start, Swift Delivery was second and Dresden Row was third, but that horse ran back in a graded race against older horses and won. He’s going to be tough to beat and if we beat him, we will probably win the race.

“We’re looking forward to getting him back on the Tapeta and he definitely likes that surface – he broke his maiden on Tapeta by around 16 lengths.

“We think the further he runs, the better he will like it – and this race is a mile and an eighth, whereas his last race was a mile. We’re very confident he will run a big race.”

On the link-up with Kelce, Irwin added: “It’s been a whirlwind type of situation with Travis Kelce, but it has been fun and I think he is enjoying it. We’re looking forward to enjoying some more good races.”