A year ago, no one expected much from a chestnut gelding by the name of Rapid Redux. When the then-four-year-old ran at Penn National on October 13, 2010, he was up for sale for the sum of $6,250, and his past performances, while consistent, weren’t any great shakes. But something about the son of Pleasantly Perfect caught the eye of trainer Davis Wells and owner Robert Cole, Jr. “He had nice form,” said Wells.  “He’s bred to go long but he has the speed to go short. I figured if we could get him really fit, we could stretch him out.” So Wells put in a claim for the horse, and Rapid Redux was transferred to his barn.

 

It turned out to be a very good purchase. Rapid Redux just surpassed the records of such horse racing greats as Citation and Cigar when he won his 17th consecutive race on September 4th of this year. Since being claimed, Rapid Redux has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile and an eighth. Wells says that the gelding’s favorite distance is a mile and a sixteenth, adding that Rapid Redux especially enjoys going that route at Charles Town since that’s a three-turn race at that oval.

 

Rapid Redux is by no means a horse for a single course, however. Since joining the Wells string, which is based in Grantville, Pa., he’s run at seven tracks along the Eastern seaboard. Next, he’ll make his attempt to equal Zenyatta’s record of 18 straight wins this Friday when he goes postward once again in the 8th race at Charles Town—a mile-and-an-eighth starter allowance. Wells says that he’s running Rapid Redux, the 2-5 morning line favorite, at the West Virginia track because the surface is kind to his trainee’s feet. “He wears glue-on shoes,” Wells explains. “I don’t want to keep putting nails in his hooves, and I always worry about him being footsore. That why we scratched last time. We’re going to Charles Town on Friday because he’s good there, and if it gets deep it won’t hurt his feet too much.”

 

It seems as though his feet feel just fine. According to Wells, Rapid Redux turned in an unpublished half-mile breeze/gallop in :52 Tuesday morning at Penn National, after which his exercise rider Amy said that he felt the same way as he did before his last race, and that she really had him in hand. 

 

Wells added, “Tomorrow [Wednesday] and the next day we’ll gallop two miles and on Friday we’ll jog one mile.” Wells added, “Or he might go for a swim on Wednesday or Thursday – our barn is right across the street from where we’re stabled, and we have a place for him to go swimming. When we take him over to swim, he really seems to enjoy it – it really makes him sharp, and he’s really good at it. We only let him do 4-5 minutes at a time, otherwise it can stress his lungs out too much.  But when he gets out, it takes two people to lead him the eighth of a mile back to the barn.”

 

Keeping Rapid Redux healthy is paramount to Wells and owner Robert Cole. After Rapid Redux began transferred to the Wells string, the gelding enjoyed one victory carrying the Cole colors before finishing eighth in a starter allowance race – one of only 12 out-of-the money finishes in his 37-race career, and his only non-winning performance for Wells. Concerned for the health of his new charge, Wells called his veterinarian to run some tests and discovered that Rapid Redux suffered from restricted breathing caused by a displacement of his soft palate. “We scoped him after that first race that he lost, and we found out that he was displacing,” revealed Wells. “We sent him right to Valley Vet and did the surgery on him. It was a pretty minor surgery, and he’s been undefeated ever since. That’s why he got beat that one and only time for me, so I’d say the surgery was pretty successful.”

 

Wells has also learned how to deal with some of the quirks in Rapid Redux’s personality. “He has to go everywhere in a lip chain because he has the habit of just taking off at a dead run from a walk,” Wells explained. 

 

Rapid Redux has other ways of letting his people know he’s ready to run. When he’s feeling fresh as he’s walking in the morning, he’ll kick out at objects sitting in the shedrow and he’ll make various attempts to take a bite out of his groom. “His groom has been telling me that he’s ready to run,” laughed Wells. “He’ll also show us a lot in the paddock and on the way to the races. When he drags you to the paddock before a race, that’s when you know he’s ready to run! I really think he’ll be on the bit for this race.”

 

His love of running is also coupled with a fierce determination to win. “He’s a pretty amazing horse,” acknowledges Wells. “He wears blinkers, so he can’t see when other horses are coming up behind him. But several riders have told me that he can feel them when they get to his hip, and he just takes off again.” 

 

No matter what happens on Friday night, Rapid Redux will get a brief vacation following the race. “He gets a week off after every time he runs,” said Wells. “I’ve got a six-stall barn with a big back window, about 4’ by 4’, and he just loves to look out of it. He’s got a front window, too, and he’ll just turn around and look out one window or the other. He gets to go swimming and goes on the EuroXcizer, and it’s what keeps him sound and happy. He just loves it. He can look around and hang his head out of the stall and relax. It’s something you just don’t get at the track.” 

 

That kind of hands-on treatment is what turned a blue-collar claimer into a horse whose feats will quietly go down in history alongside some of the most illustrious names in the Sport of Kings.