Roy Brooks

When his horse fell on top of him last May 15, many thought that Roy Brooks’ career as a competitive jockey was over. After all, he was 69 years old! But even though he had a broken pelvis and a torn urethra, Brooks had other ideas. He planned to return to competitive racing. He said, “I don’t feel like I’m 69. I don’t think of being that old. If you get to thinking you’re too old, you’ve got to stop doing this.”

Roy’s goal was to ride on November 15 in the $350,000 Black Gold Futurity at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore. Not only did he ride in that race, Brooks guided 8-1 shot Freighttrain B to victory.

Brooks plans to ride in races when he turns 70 in August. After that, he said, “We’ll see what happens.”

Sadly, many Christians retire too early from serving the Lord. They feel like they’ve put their time in, or that they no longer have anything to offer. We need more Christians with the perseverance of Roy Brooks. Wouldn’t it be great if senior Christians had the same attitude as Caleb when he said, “…So here I am today, 85 years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.” (Joshua 14:10-11).

Stay in the saddle, my friend. We have more races to win.