Dial up jockey Freddie Martinez's cell phone these days and there's a good chance you'll be greeted by George Strait's country-western hit Ace In The Hole.

There was a time when Martinez, who was born in Las Vegas, N.M., could have used a heavy dose of luck to get to the winner's circle.

It was about the time Martinez dropped out of college — after just one semester — deciding it was more fun to ride quarter horses than to chase a degree. So he gave up his lottery scholarship to The University of New Mexico. He had already passed up an athletic scholarship from Adams State, which recruited him as a wrestler.

"I guess I was scared of leaving home," says the 27-year-old jockey.

But there was no fear in Freddie when it came to getting on the back of the speed-happy and tough to handle quarter horses. After all, he had practically grown up on them.

By the time he was 12, he was riding in match races in Northern New Mexico. By then, the riding bug was feeding Freddie's appetite for competition.

"I got the craving where I just kept wanting to do it," says Freddie of his decision to drop out of UNM. "I kept going to the track."

But Freddie soon found out that there's a huge difference between a two-horse match race on a stretch of dirt in Tecolote and trying to beat eight or nine other horses at a recognized track like The Downs at Albuquerque or Ruidoso Downs.

And given how his pro riding career got started, it would have been reasonable to ask: "Freddie, what were you thinking?"

"The first couple of years, it was tough," says Freddie, flashing that boyish smile that never seems to leave his face.

So tough that Freddie was lucky if he got to ride 20 horses a year.

Few trainers and horse owners were willing to take a chance on the 18-year-old graduate of Albuquerque's Del Norte High School.

"I was a new guy and if they don't know you that well, they don't really give you a shot," says Martinez.

Back then, he rode mostly horses owned by relatives or friends from Northern New Mexico. It kept him in the business, but rarely got him to the winner's circle.

Martinez's first ride at a recognized track was at The Downs at Albuquerque on a horse owned by his dad. Asked where the twosome finished, Freddie laughs and says, "I think we're still coming."

But that was then and so much has changed over the last decade for the former 112-pound high school wrestler.

Today, Martinez is one of the leading quarter horse jockeys in the nation. This past year he won 140 races and the horses he rode earned more than $3.3 million. Only horses ridden by six-time world champion quarter horse jockey G.R. Carter earned more money. After hundreds of races in 2007, Carter's mounts earned a mere $28,000 more than horses ridden by Martinez.

Martinez's year included a second-place finish in the $2 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs in September and wins in The Championship at Sunland Park and the Zia Park Championship in Hobbs, both aboard Ketel Won. He also finished fourth aboard Strawkins in the Champion of Champions race at Los Alamitos in Southern California.

Freddie has been the leading rider at Zia Park and Ruidoso Downs the last two years and was the leading rider at Sunland Park last season.

His runner-up finish last Labor Day in the All American with SF Royal Bank marked the third time in recent years Martinez has finished second in the sprint that's considered the Kentucky Derby of quarter horse racing.

He finished second in the 2002 race aboard long shot Eye Opening Episode. The winner that year was AB What A Runner, a filly that would go on to be named a World Champion. He also finished second in 2006 with Gun Battle, which barely lost a stirring stretch duel with No Secrets Here.

Freddie no longer has to worry about where his next ride is coming from. Not since he joined the stable of trainer Paul Jones. The California-based trainer is arguably the best in the business. He won back-to-back All Americans with Teller Cartel in 2005 and No Secrets Here, and this year his quarter horses earned an all-time high of more than $6.5 million.

These days Freddie can pick and choose which horses to ride and this past year rode in 601 races.

Martinez and Jones hooked up two years ago. Jones and his assistant Lisa Saumell, were looking for a jockey to ride their horses in New Mexico and Saumell, who runs Jones' operation in New Mexico, decided to give Martinez a chance.

"She's the one that gave me the opportunity to start galloping horses and put in a good word with Paul," says Martinez.

Saumell and Jones, though, already had a pretty good idea of Martinez's talent.

"He's a natural," says Saumell "He had the talent. That was obvious."

"He's very athletic, and he's very competitive," says Jones. "I'd watched him. I didn't know him real well, but I saw he had a lot of talent and was young. In a way, he had been overlooked. He needed to get somebody to back him, to tell him, 'You can do it.' "

When Martinez joined Jones in California, he didn't immediately start riding in races. Instead, his daily routing included exercising horses and getting them ready to race. Jones, it seemed, wanted to find out about Martinez's willingness to work hard on the menial end of the business.

"When he first came to Los Alamitos, we worked his butt off," says Jones. "He was getting on babies all day and not riding (in races) very much. When he came to work for us he didn't have a lot of high work ethic. He's now one of the hardest working jockeys anywhere."

And one heck of a frequent flyer.

Over a three-day weekend in November, Martinez rode at Sunland Park on Friday and Saturday afternoons, then flew out to California to ride at Los Alamitos on Saturday night. He caught a plane back to El Paso early Sunday morning to ride at Sunland that day, then flew back out to California to ride in a derby at Los Alamitos that night.

Trainers aren't the only ones who recognize riding talent. Bettors usually have a list of jockeys they like and those they consider mediocre. Jones says there's only so much a good jockey can do to help a bad horse in a race.

"You can have a great jockey on a bad horse and that horse is still going to lose," says Jones.

But Jones also says riders like Martinez can help get the most out of a racehorse.

"A lot of things can go wrong in a race, but a lot of things can go right," Jones says. "The way the jockey warms a horse up. He knows how to get a horse tuned up. Mentally, how a horse responds to the jockey and how he (jock) gets them on their toes. Some horses you want to quiet down and some you have to wake up."

Which may help to explain how Eye Opening Episode and SF Royal Bank, both long shots, came so close to winning the All American. In both of those races, Freddie had the lead at one point in the 440-yard sprints.

Of Eye Opening Episode's near upset over AB What A Runner, Martinez says, "I got by her at one time but she fought back and got ahead of me. At the (finish line) we were head-bopping. Me and the other jockey (Jay Conklin) weren't sure who had won it."

The photo showed AB What A Runner hit the wire a nose in front.

"It was a little heartbreaking," says Freddie.

Freddie had a good enough year in 2007 to earn a six-figure income. What's more, in a business where broken bones are a given, Freddie has been more fortunate than most. A concussion and a dislocated hip are the only injuries of any significance on his chart.

"Knock on wood," he says. "I've gone down a lot of times, but I've been lucky."

So what's his ace in the hole?

"A couple of things," he says. "Pray to God and have a lot of support behind you."