Rick Wilson never -- not once, not ever -- considered retiring after severely breaking his leg Oct. 12, 2001, in a vicious spill at Pimlico. Despite painful complications that kept him out of work for a year and two weeks, he never considering giving up.

"Never crossed my mind," says Wilson, 49, one of the oldest jockeys in one of the most demanding professions. "I guess you might as well say I'm a nut. I love it. I love riding."

A major reason he loves it at this stage of a 30-year career is a speedy little filly living in a stall at Laurel Park. Until his injury, Wilson was the regular rider of Xtra Heat.

Their teaming for nine victories -- all in stakes, including Xtra Heat's only Grade I triumph, the Prioress at Belmont Park -- was a major reason the Maryland horse won the Eclipse Award in 2001 as North America's outstanding 3-year-old filly.

Saturday, Wilson was reunited with Xtra Heat for the first time since September 2001. She finished second in the Garland of Roses Handicap at Aqueduct in the mud, which Wilson says she didn't like.

"She was slipping and sliding; she wasn't getting hold of the track," Wilson says. "But she tried as hard as she could. She kicked in and tried to run that horse down. It was great being back on her. She's all heart."

Dat You Miz Blue, who relished the mud, finished 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Xtra Heat. It was the Maryland filly's first race since finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and her debut for her new owners, a four-man partnership known as ClassicStar based in Utah with a farm in Kentucky.

ClassicStar bought Xtra Heat for $1.5 million on Nov. 5, one day after she failed to meet her reserve -- the minimum for which she would be sold -- at an auction in Lexington, Ky. It bought the 4-year-old filly as a potential broodmare, but kept her with John Salzman, her trainer at Laurel.

Salzman and his two Maryland partners purchased Xtra Heat for $5,000 when she was 2. The sprinting filly won 24 of 32 races for them, earning $2.2 million and becoming one of the most popular horses in the country.

ClassicStar allowed Salzman to choose his jockey. He didn't hesitate in picking the grizzled veteran Wilson, who had ridden Xtra Heat so effectively before his injury.

"I'd just as soon have Rick Wilson on my horse when they turn for home as any jockey in the country," Salzman says. "When he looks like he might be out of horse, it turns out he still has a lot of horse left."

And Wilson would rather be on Xtra Heat than any horse he's ever ridden, including his two Kentucky Derby mounts; his five Preakness mounts; Storm Tower, with whom he won the Fountain of Youth and Wood Memorial; and Safely Kept, perhaps the greatest sprinting filly of all. Wilson rode Safely Kept only twice, and not in her major races.

"She ranks at the top, even over the horses I rode in the Derby," Wilson says of Xtra Heat. "Why? Heart. She's got a ton of heart.

"I've gotten on her since she was a baby [a 2-year-old]. I rode her in her first race. Nothing bothers her. She reserves every ounce of energy and puts it all in her race."

One of Wilson's first thoughts after breaking his leg in October 2001 was: "This is a hell of a time for this to happen."

He was two weeks from riding Xtra Heat in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Belmont Park. He ended up missing her trip to the Middle East for the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, the richest sprint in the world. And he even missed her second try in the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park.

Xtra Heat didn't win any of those races. Wilson said he believes, and Salzman concurs, that if Wilson had ridden her in last year's Breeders' Cup at Belmont, she would have won.

The day before the race, Wilson called his old friend, Jorge Chavez, the New York rider Salzman had tabbed as Wilson's fill-in. Wilson said he told Chavez not to worry if horses challenged Xtra Heat as they turned for home .

"I told him, 'Let them come to her,' " Wilson says. " 'She's going to want to take off. But don't let her go before the eighth pole. Don't worry. She won't let those horses by her.' "

Wilson watched the race on TV at home in Sykesville. Xtra Heat broke so quickly that Chavez appeared to be caught off balance. Then, as they turned for home in the lead, Chavez, instead of waiting as Wilson had said, urged Xtra Heat. She spurted ahead but then, at the wire, gave way to the charging Squirtle Squirt, who beat her by a half-length.

Wilson says if Chavez had waited, two things would have happened differently. Jerry Bailey aboard Squirtle Squirt would have had to wait a little longer behind Xtra Heat, trapped on the rail. And Xtra Heat, reserved coming out of the turn, would have had energy left down the stretch to dig in and win the race.

"Rick has a lot of confidence in her," Salzman says. "He knows every step what she's going to do, how much gas she has or doesn't have.

"I think if he'd ridden her it would have made a half-length's difference. That's easy to say now."

Wilson might get the chance to ride Xtra Heat in next year's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park. That will depend on how she holds up and whether ClassicStar decides to breed her in 2003 or 2004.

And it will depend on how Wilson holds up. When he broke his right femur (thigh bone) and three ribs in that spill at Pimlico, he merely added to his list of riding injuries: broken neck, broken back, broken collarbone, broken right shoulder, broken left shoulder, broken elbow, broken left leg (twice), broken right ankle, broken left ankle, broken foot.

He has a plate in his neck, pins in his collarbone and, from the Pimlico break, a rod in his right thigh, from hip to knee. It took doctors three surgeries to get that rod right so an impatient Wilson could get back to riding.

After returning Oct. 26, he won his 4,780th race the day after Thanksgiving, passing the legendary Eddie Arcaro for 20th on the list of winningest jockeys. When someone approached Wilson about the milestone, he didn't know anything about it. He wasn't counting victories, only days until he could get back on Xtra Heat.