Piper’s Factor surprises with Toronto Cup Stakes triumph

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - All eyes were on favored Swift Delivery in Saturday’s $142,000 Toronto Cup Stakes at Woodbine because of football star Travis Kelce’s partial ownership in the gelding, but Piper’s Factor took to the turf nicely in the one-mile event for 3-year-olds to prevail in a mild upset under Sofia Vives.

Piper’s Factor raced about three lengths off the dueling leaders Babbo and Western Whirl on the backstretch before mounting a three-wide bid to the lead entering the stretch.

Swift Delivery followed Piper’s Factor after trailing early and took dead aim at him in the drive, but Piper’s Factor held him off on his left lead to score by 1 3/4 lengths, in a time of 1:36.09 over the yielding ground.

Dresden Row finished another 1 1/2 lengths back in third. Babbo, Western Whirl and Tunechi completed the order of finish.

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“I knew I was going to sit right behind the speed,” Vives said. “We’d hoped that he’d take to the turf and he did just that. At the quarter pole, I saw the horse in front of me start to get a little tired and I tried to get first run on everybody. He was all game down the lane to get to the wire first. He deserved this one.”

Piper’s Factor ($16.60) banked $90,000 in his initial stakes victory for owner-breeder Chiefswood Stables. The son of The Factor bypassed the King’s Plate after a flat fourth in the July 20 Plate Trial Stakes.

Winning trainer Katerina Vassilieva was non-committal about running the Ontario-bred back in the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown on Sept. 29, the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes at 1 1/2 miles, but said it was a possibility.

“We’ll see how the horse comes back,” Vassilieva said. “We’ll have to sit down with the owners and discuss the strategy, but I think it’s definitely possible that we would entertain that race.”

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