Like millions of other people, jockey Eddie Martin Jr. was deeply affected by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina two summers ago. For someone who was born in New Orleans and lived there most of his life, Martin has found the storm and its aftermath continue to be very hard to swallow.

Fair Grounds, Martin’s home track in New Orleans, ran an abbreviated live meet at Louisiana Downs last winter but reopened for business this past Thanksgiving minus one familiar face. The 43-year-old Martin decided to try New York and he has fallen in love with the big city and local racing.

“I really like it here,” Martin said. “The racing is good, the purses are good and the horses are good. I love riding against these guys. I’m doing good. I’m in the standings.”

Through the middle of Thursday’s card, Martin was eighth in Aqueduct’s jockey standings with 17 wins. He recently bagged his 3,000th career victory December 8th aboard Sweetiewheatie.

Success has also brought fortune. Thursday afternoon, Martin escaped injury in a nasty three-horse spill during the eighth race that sidelined fellow jockeys Jose Santos and Ramon Dominguez. Santos suffered broken ribs, compression fractures in his spine and possibly a broken nose. Dominguez, the meet’s leading rider, is dealing with an unspecified injury to his right knee.

Martin is hoping to cement himself in the New York jockey colony, knowing that it will be more challenging for once Belmont Park opens on May 2 and jockeys like Edgar Prado, Cornelio Velasquez, John Velazquez, Kent Desormeaux and Javier Castellano return from Florida and Kentucky. Martin is counting on the work he is putting in now keeping him on some live mounts during the summer.

“It’s probably going to get a little tougher when those guys get back from Florida, but that’s the way it is,” Martin said. “I’m holding my own now, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t hold my own when they come back. I’ve got good work habits and we’ve been building up clientele as we go. By the time Gulfstream ends, I’ll be good and established.

“I plan on staying. I don’t plan on leaving when Belmont opens because I’ve really got no place to go. Louisiana really doesn’t have any good racing in the summer and I’ve never ridden at Saratoga, so I’m really looking forward to being up there.”

Although Martin has lived in New Orleans most of his life and has family and friends there, he does not seem to be in any hurry to go back permanently.

“I’d been riding at Fair Grounds forever,” said the father of three. “Under the circumstances with the storm, it was in my best interest to go somewhere else. It was too disheartening and depressing looking at that garbage everywhere. It’s awful. I haven’t really even had a second thought about riding at Fair Grounds this winter, to be honest. I watch it on TV, but that’s about it. I assume if I was there, I’d be one of the top few jocks, but I had to branch out and look for bigger and better things.”

The toughest part of riding in New York for Martin is being away from his son Beau, daughters Alexandra and Caitlyn and wife, Dorothy.

“My family never did move because my kids are in school and we didn’t want to uproot them,” Martin said. “They live in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, which wasn’t nearly as badly hit as the city. They’re happy where they’re at, so that’s where they’re going to stay. We talk a lot on the computer and on the phone and I try to go home every other week.”

Even though Metairie may have escaped the destruction that New Orleans faced, Martin’s home was damaged to the tune of $50,000, which he had to pay for out of pocket just hoping his insurance company would reimburse him for at least part of that sum. Martin’s vacation home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, about 50 miles from Metairie, was completely destroyed.

From his bi-weekly visits to New Orleans and through talking with friends and family, things in the Crescent City have not gotten much better since the storm hit in August 2004.

“Things are about the same in New Orleans,” Martin said. “There’s really nothing getting better. It’s pretty awful. It’s coming up on two years since the storm and there are some parts of the city that look like they just got hit yesterday. It’s a joke. If I were down there, I’d probably be doing a lot of charity work because they need it. My family is down there and I have some investments down there, but I’m looking to move on somewhere else. I was watching TV last night and they said that in 2050, the sea level’s going to rise by 20 feet. New Orleans will be under water anyway.”

With little desire to be in New Orleans now, Martin is very happy things have worked out as well as they have in New York.

“I really like it here,” he said. “I live close by, so I don’t have to drive far. I’m finding my way around the city pretty good. The atmosphere and the mentality of the people here is great. Everyone tells you how scary New York is, but the people here are very nice. You can go up to anybody on the street and talk to them and they’ll talk back. It’s not as bad as people say it is.”

Martin said he has no rooting interest in the upcoming Super Bowl and he was not bitter when the Chicago Bears knocked off his hometown New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game.

“I like the Saints, but I’m not a die-hard fan,” Martin said. “I was happy to see them make it as far as they did in the playoffs, but there were no tears lost when they lost.”