Rapid Redux's connections still seeking a final race for him

The connections of Rapid Redux still hope to find a race for their record-setting gelding before the end of 2011, but time is growing short.

Trainer David Wells said Rapid Redux has been moved from his farm and back to Penn National, where he is galloping daily and fit to race, but the question is when and where Rapid Redux might start. Option No.1 would be a nine-furlong starter-allowance race on Dec. 30 at Charles Town, but that race is not in the condition book, and Wells and owner Robert Cole can only hope that racing officials there write the race as an “extra” on the overnight rundown of entries that comes out Friday. If that happens, entries for the race would be taken Tuesday.

“It’s no sure thing they could get that race to go, even if they do put it up as an extra,” said Wells.

Rapid Redux has won 21 races in a row, a modern-day record in the continental U.S., and his most recent victory, on Dec. 13 at Laurel, gave him 19 in 2011 alone, equaling the modern-day continental U.S. record held by Citation.

Wells said that Rapid Redux would not ship to Gulfstream Park for a starter-allowance race there, though the track has wooed Rapid Redux’s connections with incentives, he said. Wells said he also asked Penn National to put up a starter-allowance race as an extra, but that the track had declined. There is a suitable race for Rapid Redux at Parx Racing before year’s end, but Rapid Redux’s connections are hesitant to tackle stronger competition there.

“I don’t know if he’s quite up to that,” said Wells.

Rapid Redux is going to be retired after his next start, Wells reiterated, though plans for a permanent post-racing home haven’t been finalized.