'Redux' 3-5 favorite in latest bid for history

Jockey Valenzuela retires at age 49

Et cetera

'Redux' 3-5 favorite in latest bid for history

Rapid Redux has been established as the 3-5 morning-line favorite by Maryland Jockey Club handicapper Frank Carulli in Tuesday's sixth race, a $17,000 starter allowance. Rapid Redux, who broke the record for consecutive wins last month at Mountaineer Park with his 20th straight score, looks to tie the modern-day U.S. record for victories in a calendar year, currently shared by Citation (1948) and Roseben (1905) at 19. The North American record is owned by Puerto Rico-based Camarero, who won 29straight races in 1955 and an additional 19 consecutive a year earlier during a 56-win streak. Luke Blackburn won 22 consecutive races in 1880. Rapid Redux, who will start from the rail, is 18-for-18 in 2011. Six runners are set to face Rapid Redux in the 1 1/16-mile test for horses who have started for a claiming price of $5,000 or less in 2010 or 2011. During the win-streak Rapid Redux has faced an average of 4.7 rivals per race. "It is typical about what we have been running against," owner Robert Cole, a Towson native, said. "We have to go out and win one more. It is not going to last forever. We just hope Tuesday isn't our day to get beat. I know it can happen at any time." Cole claimed the son of Pleasantly Perfect at Penn National for $6,250 on Oct. 13, 2010. The win-streak began Dec. 2, 2010 at Penn National. Since then, the gelding has won 21 of 22 races with earnings of $246,694. Cole and trainer David Wells have sent their star to seven different tracks at distances from five furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, using seven riders. J.D. Acosta, who has been aboard six times during the streak, has the mount. "We have to go with the game plan which is going to the lead," Acosta said. "I am grateful to have the chance to ride. This is something the big name jockeys get to do and I am really happy to have the opportunity." Rapid Redux earned his 19th straight victory at Laurel Park on Oct. 27 to tie Zenyatta and Peppers Pride in the record book and has won three other races here (Jan. 12, Feb. 16 and March 3) during the streak. Post time for Tuesday's sixth race is 2:55 p.m. The race will be broadcast live on HRTV and streamed live on drf.com.

More horse racing: Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, 49, who won the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness aboard Sunday Silence and won more than 4,000 races in 33 years, has retired.

Women's college basketball: Host Navy scored 12 of the final 14 points of the game to beat Princeton, 65-52. Jade Geif had a game-high 18 points for the Mids (6-3), who have won five straight. Niveen Rasheed had 16 for the Tigers (7-2).

More college basketball: Loyola's Jim Lacy and Patty Stoffey are among 20inaugural members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Honor Roll. Their names will be enshrined in The MAAC Experience exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Lacy, who played for the Greyhounds in 1943-44 and from 1946 to 1949, was the first NCAA player to score 2,000 career points, and remains Loyola's all-time leading scorer with 2,199. Stoffey, who played at Loyola from 1991 to 1995, scored 2,467 points, the most by any woman in Maryland history and the current MAAC record.

NBA: The Orlando Magic waived three-time All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas, formerly of the Washington Wizards, under the league's new amnesty clause, which allows every team one opportunity to waive a player without the remainder of his contract counting toward the salary cap or tax threshold. Arenas, 29, who is set to earn $15.3 million this season, played 70 games in 2010-11 with the Wizards and the Magic, averaging 10.8 points and 3.9 assists.

Olympics: Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, 19, of Baltimore was named a Ralph Lauren brand ambassador leading up to and throughout the 2012 Games in London. Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.

—From Sun staff and news services