Travis Kelce records first win with racehorse whose name is inspired by Taylor Swift

Travis Kelce has scored his first number one as a racehorse owner with the unbelievably appropriately named horse Swift Delivery. The star tight end for Super Bowl winners Kansas City Chiefs has grown into a worldwide celebrity through his relationship with billionaire singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Last May after attending the Kentucky Derby for the first time he agreed to join an ownership group for the first time. At Churchill Downs, he was a guest of the Zoldan family who have stakes in racehorses with Team Valor International, one of the world’s most successful ownership syndicates who won the Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom.

The stable has won big races all over the world and in Europe the current star is Facteur Cheval. Through his friendship with the Zoldan family, Kelce took a stake in a horse trained in Toronto, Canada.

Explaining the link-up to Mirror Racing at the time, Team Valor principal Barry Irwin said: “Travis Kelce is not just an athlete, he’s transcended that. He has been a guest host on Saturday Night Live. He’s just a multi-talented guy and very charismatic.

“So how the whole thing came about is through Bruce Zoldan, who is my most active and loyal client. He operates the largest retailer of recreational fireworks, Phantom Fireworks, in the US. His son Alex is a really close friend of Travis Kelce.

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“Bruce attends the Kentucky Derby every year and he invited Travis Kelce this year and that’s where I met him. We talked about buying into one of the horses.

“I’d been trying to buy a horse but couldn’t find anything suitable. Then this one just happened to come along with the name Swift Delivery. It’s kind of an amazing coincidence.”

He continued: “Mark Casse the trainer owned him with another client who got frustrated when he didn’t show anything. They put him in a digital sale and Gary Barber bought him for $55,000 [ £41,000] and the first time he ran it, it won by 16 ½ lengths.

“Gary Barber, who I own a lot of horses with, knew I was looking for a horse to buy for Travis, and we worked out a deal to buy a quarter of the horse.”

Swift Delivery has run five times since Kelce became involved, finishing second in the Toronto Cup in August then winning an allowance race at Woodbine on Sunday, collecting a first prize of £25,000.

Swift Delivery’s success could help bring more followers to racing with the New York Racing Association already floating the idea of the horse running at the prestigious Saratoga meet this summer.

Irwin added: “Travis is very popular, there is the connection with Taylor Swift who is as popular as it gets. I think it's a great thing for racing because we need all the positive publicity we can get.”