We periodically hear about athletes and their faith — but here’s a sport that rarely gets mentioned: horse racing.

The Tidings in Los Angeles has a look at champion jockey Martin Pedroza, who talks about how prayer has sustained him:

The jockey says prayer has been the one constant in his life. After graduating from the famed Panama Jockey School with alums the likes of Laffit Pincay, Manuel Ycaza and Alex Solis, he still did not have a winner in four months. When he went to his mother, Luz, and said he wanted to return to high school, she said to pray to his recently deceased father, Aureleo, and also to God.

“The next day I won a race,” he recalled, grinning. “It was a miracle: 99-to-1. The name of the horse was Laclave. If he was 6-to-5, I wouldn’t have thought it was a miracle. But 99-to-1!”

In 1982, he came to the United States with the encouragement of his older brother, Marcelino, who had established himself as a jockey here. Veteran riders Eddie Delahoussey and Bill Shoemaker helped calm the younger hothead Pedroza down and got him to stop pressing when he went into a temporary slump. And the following year, the 17-year-old was the leading apprentice at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita and also at Los Alamitos.

But he really gained notice on the local racing circuit in 1989, when he won the Santa Anita Handicap (the “Big Cap”) aboard 50-to-1 shot Martial Law. And at age 40, he won his first major title at Hollywood Park’s 2005 fall meet by riding 31 winners.

“I pray all the time, just like my mama told me,” he said. “All the time I pray in the jock’s room. I pray before I get on the horse. I pray at home. I pray in church. All the time.”

One thing he prayed for this year were the relatives of two horse owners he rode for – James and Charles Ortega. They were members of the extended Covina family who were allegedly shot and killed by a recently divorced husband dressed in a Santa outfit at a Christmas Eve party. A week after the horrific tragedy sent shock waves through the San Gabriel Valley, Pedroza rode their horse for the last time under the Ortegas’ name.

“I really got chills going into the [starting] gate,” Pedroza recalled. “It almost felt like an angel was on my back, you know, riding with me. And when we won, I was all emotional, just very, very happy. Nothing was going to make it better for that family, I knew that, but at least it was a moment of relief and happiness for them.

“And the horse’s name was ‘Return of the King,'” he said, shaking his head in disbelief even after eight months. “So just everything was going together. It was wonderful.”

Visit The Tidings to read the rest.