Celebrity Equestrians: Travis Kelce Buys an Ownership Stake in Swift Delivery
Okay, so Travis Kelce isn’t exactly an equestrian. In fact, we’re not even sure if he’s ever been on a horse. However, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend (three-time Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end) bought an ownership stake in a racehorse named Swift Delivery.
Actually, now that we come to think of it, Kelce did just drop a presumably large amount of money on a horse he probably will never ride. Wow. Maybe he really is an equestrian….
On Tuesday, Team Valor International founder and CEO Barry Irwin announced Kelce and the Zoldan family recently acquired a significant share of the three-year-old gelding. Kelce has been part of Swift Delivery’s race connection for a little over a month, but on Tuesday he gave permission for his involvement to be announced publicly.
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Kelce first heard about the horse when he attended the Kentucky Derby with his close friend, Alex Zoldan, son of Bruce Zoldan, founder and CEO of Phantom Fireworks, he largest pyrotechnic retailer in North America.
Although the colt is not named after Taylor Swift (the name is a pure coincidence, it appears), when Irwin spoke with Kelce and realized the connection, he knew it was meant to be: “It’s very exciting,” Irwin told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I met him at the Kentucky Derby and got to spend some time with him and stuff, and we talked about horses and everything. When this horse came to light and it was owned by one of my partners already, with the name I figured this has got to be a no-brainer.”
Okay, this is pretty flippin’ cute. We know that Taylor Swift loves horses, but now her boyfriend has a stake in one, too. And it’s not just any race horse — it’s a rather good one.
Swift Delivery won his first start for Team Valor and Barber in an allowance race July 19 at Woodbine, which followed a 16 1/2-length runaway in a June 23 maiden race there when racing solely for Barber. The Mark Casse-trained son of Not This Time is set to make his stakes debut Aug. 31 at a mile on the grass in the Toronto Cup at Woodbine. Casse said of the colt, “We bought him as a yearling. His sire, Not This Time, is one of the best in the country. Patrick [jockey, Husbands] and [assistant trainer] David Adams were very high on this horse, but he just didn’t perform as a two-year-old. We gelded him in the wintertime and from that point on, he’s trained and performed very well.”
We look forward to seeing how Swift Delivery progresses — and can’t wait for the puns when he does well!
