Laurel: Rapid Redux's connections to be honored

As part of its Feb. 18 card which features the Grade 2, $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap and the $100,000 John B. Campbell Handicap, Laurel Park will honor the connections of Rapid Redux, the gelding who has compiled a 22-race winning streak and earned a special Eclipse Award.

The festivities will include a poster giveaway, a winner’s circle presentation, and an autograph session with owner Robert Cole, trainer David Wells, and possibly jockey J.D. Acosta.

Rapid Redux, claimed for $6,250, went 19 for 19 in 2011 and began 2012 by winning again on Jan. 4. The horse has been taken out of training and is being given an extended vacation at Wells’s farm in central Pennsylvania, but Cole has indicated Rapid Redux may race again.

“He is doing fine on David’s farm and we are hoping to extend the streak,” said Cole. “If he was a normal horse he would be coming back to race for sure, but we don’t want to bring him back if he is not the same horse. That is the predicament we have and we don’t know where we’ll be in May or June when he is ready to go again.

“We are uncommitted at this time,” Cole added. “He has given us everything he’s got and you don’t want to go to the well one too many times.”