Rapid Redux Goes For 20 In A Row

The eighth race tonight at Mountaineer Park features what initially appears to be a ho-hum $5,000 Starter Allowance event at a mile on the main track (post time: 9:55pm Eastern).  At second glance, the race is an opportunity for a five-year-old horse to set a modern-day record with his 20th straight victory.  Rapid Redux, the gelded son of former Breeders' Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect, is the horse that will attempt to set that record.

Rapid Redux began his 19 race win streak back on Dec. 2nd, 2010, at Penn National when he won an open company $8,000 claiming event over six rivals.  He hasn't lost a race since, including an impressive 17-for-17 stretch in 2011. 

That might be the most impressive aspect of the streak by Rapid Redux - the number of races he's run and won over the last year. In an age when top class horses rarely run more than six or seven times in a season, Rapid Redux has churned out almost twenty starts... and he's won them all.  Sure, the gelding isn't running against top competition; the majority of his races have come under the same $5,000 stater allowance conditions that he'll face this evening.  However, when we consider how difficult it is for horses to stay in top form on a week-to-week basis, along with the constant threat of injuries, illness, or a myriad of other factors that contribute to form, Rapid Redux has proven himself to be an exceptional animal.

Since his streak began over a year ago, Rapid Redux has won races at several different distances (7f, 8f, 8.5f, 9f), over different conditions (muddy/sealed, fast, good, good/sealed, and sloppy/sealed), and at multiple race tracks (Laurel, Thistledown, Penn National, Parx, Mountaineer, Charles Town, and Timonium). And while most observers wouldn't label Rapid Redux a "great" horse in terms of the stature of his wins or the enormity of his earnings (or lack thereof), he's certainly "great" at the level and against the competition that he's faced over this last year. If it was easy to spot a horse against starter allowance competition and win almost twenty races in a row, claiming trainers all over the country would be doing it.  But they aren't.

Entries, post positions and morning line odds are below the jump.