David Wells wants to make one thing clear. OK, two things.

First thing: He did not pitch for the New York Yankees. That’s another guy.

Second, and more important, thing: Success has not spoiled Rapid Redux.

The 5-year-old gelding, who has been cutting a record-breaking swath across the Northeast for the past year, still puts his running (and rundown) bandages on one leg at a time. Still rides the team bus. Still goes jogging with his best friend first thing in the morning, and chats with his Facebook friends before turning in at night (“Hoping to get 2,000 ‘likes’ — can u help me?”)

Despite the media glare, the record-breaking feats and the groupies who sashay down the barn aisle trying to ply him with peppermints, the jaunty redhead has managed not to become one of “those” superstars.

It’s a safe bet that Wells, a 47-year-old trainer based at Penn National Racecourse, wasn’t thinking “Citation,” or “Zenyatta” or even “Pepper’s Pride” when he scanned the Daily Racing Form’s past performances for the fourth race at Penn National the night of Oct. 13, 2010, looking for a horse to claim.

Wells had five minutes to decide whether or not to drop a claim slip for Rapid Redux, a Kentucky-bred son of 2003 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect. The price was right: $6,250. And the owner was willing: Robert Cole Jr., who bets several different tracks daily while looking for horses to claim, had pegged Rapid Redux as a horse “with a lot of speed who could probably go long.”

“We figured we might win one or two with him, and then lose him,” Wells said. “I think the longest we’d ever kept a horse was five or six races.”

They’ve still got Rapid Redux. And let’s just say he’s exceeded expectations.

On Dec. 2, 2010, Rapid Redux won an $8,000 claiming race at Penn National. Since then, he’s won 20 times without a loss. His 20th consecutive win, a Nov. 21 starter allowance at Mountaineer Park, eclipsed the previous mark of 19 straight wins shared by 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta and New Mexico-bred legend Pepper’s Pride.

Last Tuesday, at historic Laurel Park in Maryland, Rapid Redux won his 19th race of 2011, equaling the modern U.S. record for wins in a single year set by Triple Crown winner Citation, who won 19 of 20 in 1948.

Most top horses retire with fewer lifetime starts than Rapid Redux has made in a year. The California-based Zenyatta earned her 19 wins over a four-year period, as did Pepper’s Pride. All but two of Zenyatta’s wins took place in California, while Pepper’s Pride raced exclusively in New Mexico.

Rapid Redux has raced at seven different tracks during his winning streak, and on surfaces from fast to sloppy. He has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile and one-eighth. Yet the gelding’s earnings this year ($212,584) probably wouldn’t have covered the travel expenses for two-time Horse of the Year Cigar during his 16-race winning streak (accomplished over two years, from 1994 to 1996).

Horse of the Year Debate

If you haven’t heard much about Rapid Redux or his streak, perhaps it’s because the incessant tap-tapping on computers across the land has drowned them out. Thoroughbred racing’s “base” — the fans that follow Zenyatta’s first pregnancy as closely as they followed her racing career, or post love notes to Rapid Redux on his Facebook page — have taken to the Internet to demand his inclusion into the Horse of the Year debate.

True, the year did not produce a clear frontrunner for the title, or even two dominant horses with comparable qualifications. The honor will likely go to Havre de Grace, a 4-year-old filly who defeated males in the Woodward Stakes, one of her three Grade I victories this year. Should Havre de Grace win, she would be the third consecutive female to be named Horse of the Year, joining Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra (2009).

It’s not just the fact that Rapid Redux has not won a Grade I race this year that disqualifies him from Horse of the Year consideration. It’s that he has not run in a graded stakes race of any kind. Never has, and hopefully never will, because the little gelding has clearly found a place where he can shine: Starter allowance races, which allow claiming horses to run for a purse without the risk of being claimed. To run him out of his league would risk, at the very least, ending the streak; at worst, harming the horse.

“There’s a lot of flack on the Internet saying, ‘Why don’t you guys step him up?’” Wells said. “He’s not that quality. He just isn’t. But he’s towered above everybody in his class.”

Unfazed by the Attention

Not many star athletes would tolerate visitors to the locker room right before the big game. But two hours before his race at Laurel, Rapid Redux seemed unfazed by the steady stream of racetrack workers stopping by to pay their respects. Bright-eyed and personable, Rapid Redux is barely 16-hands tall and weighs just over 1,000 lbs. The lack of bulk on his light frame is precisely the reason he has stayed sound under the duress of constant racing.

“People want to say, ‘He ain’t Citation,’” said a soft-spoken older man with a Jamaican lilt who came by to have his picture taken with Rapid Redux. “I’ll tell you what … this is a hell of a horse. He’s what racing’s all about. The hard knocker.”

Indeed, it is horses like Rapid Redux — the mid- to low-level claimers — who fill the races that keep the tracks open. Wells said he is “flattered” by the fan-generated campaign to get Rapid Redux on the Horse of the Year ballot, but has focused on winning the “Vox Populi” (Voice of the People) award, which recognizes the racehorse whose “popularity and racing excellence resounded most with the American public.”

“Horse of the Year is so much about politics and money and everything else,” Wells said. “If it was just simply Horse of the Year, he’d deserve it. But what it means is, elite Horse of the Year. No, he’s never run in graded stakes, but we didn’t pay that kind of money for him.”

Wells said he had “maybe five minutes” to give Rapid Redux the once-over in the paddock before claiming him. “I didn’t see any (bad) ankles or knees,” Wells said. “You have to drop the claim 10 minutes before the race, so I didn’t get a great look at him.”

Rapid Redux won his first race for his new connections, but finished dead last in his next start. A veterinary exam revealed a displaced palate, which was surgically repaired. Rapid Redux won his first post-op race, and thus commenced the winning streak.

After the gelding’s fifth or sixth win in the streak, Wells says he went back and looked at his training charts. “I wanted to see, ‘What am I doing that he likes?’” the trainer said. “I saw that he did really well with little breezes four or five days before a race. We never time him. If you run as often as he does, you don’t need those big breezes.”

Rapid Redux is always the first Wells trainee to go to the track in the mornings. And he is always accompanied by his pony, an affable ex-racehorse named Lucky.

“Lucky pulls up to the barn 15 minutes before the track opens,” Wells said, laughing.

Keeping Him Healthy

Wells is an unapologetic disciple of the condition book — often referred to as the “Horseman’s Bible” — which lists and outlines the conditions and qualifications for upcoming races. “I get on the Internet, and click on all the condition books at the tracks all up and down the East Coast,” Wells said. “I look for all the $5,000 starter allowance races. We try to pick our spots, because it’s not about money. It’s about winning and keeping him healthy.”

In horse racing, one man’s jalopy is often another’s Rolls Royce. Originally trained by Kelly Breen and owned by George and Lori Hall — the team that won this year’s Belmont Stakes with Ruler on Ice — Rapid Redux was an $85,000 Keeneland yearling purchase. He broke his maiden on his second attempt and showed stakes potential as a 2-year-old, but after a sound thumping in the Tyro Stakes it became clear the gelding’s niche was mid-level claiming races. Eventually, Rapid Redux wound his way down in price until he became the kind of horse Wells, and Cole, like to claim.

“He’s been very, very sound,” Wells said. “We take a picture (X-ray) of his legs regularly to keep an eye on things. He’s got some wear and tear, but there’s never been a day he couldn’t go to the track. But he has lost a few steps. It’s hard to keep a horse that sharp.”

If it were Wells’ decision to make, Rapid Redux would have been officially retired after Tuesday’s race. “I want to retire him before he gets really sore,” Wells said. “I’ll take him home to my farm for a few days and then make a decision. But really, why keep going until we get beat?”

Rapid Redux could retire to the Kentucky Horse Park, which houses famed geldings such as two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Da Hoss and Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide as well as Cigar, who was sent there after proving unfertile as a stallion. “I want him to go to a real quality place,” Wells said. “He’d probably be a great show horse, after he winds down.”

Since he brought it up: Wouldn’t a horse like Rapid Redux be an ideal spokesman for a group like CANTER — the Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses — that retrains off-the-track thoroughbreds for new careers? As a permanent resident of such a group, Rapid Redux could make public appearances to raise funds for thoroughbred retirement, and maybe even compete in some low-level events.

After a few days at Wells’ farm, Rapid Redux was scheduled to go back to the racetrack Saturday morning. Cole would like to give the gelding a chance for win number 20 this year, but said the decision was up to Wells.

“In a perfect world,” Wells said, “I’d like to race him Dec. 31 and retire him right after the race.”

Rapid Redux won’t win the Horse of the Year title, but he certainly gets the “Hell of a Horse” award. One hopes the next time Wells gets on the Internet, he won’t be looking for a race that Rapid Redux can win, but for a place the gelding can call his forever home.

And then, everybody wins.