JC / Railbird

Jockeys Archive

Bailey’s Final Ride

For a couple of seconds in mid-stretch, it looked as though Jerry Bailey’s career would have a perfect ending, that even-money favorite Silver Tree would win the Sunshine Millions Turf after an ground-saving expert ride. If only he hadn’t been briefly blocked before squeezing daringly through a narrow hole along the rail, because on the outside, longshot Miesque’s Approval was in the clear and charging to the lead. The 48-1 shot beat Silver Tree by three-quarters of a length.
“You’re either a hero or a goat. I guess I’ll go eat hay tonight,” Bailey said after. “I think Silver Tree was probably the best horse … But it didn’t open up in time for me. I played the hand that was dealt me. It just wasn’t enough.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly the fairy tale ending was it,” said Silver Tree’s trainer, Bill Mott. “But it was close.”
Shut out on both his mounts in the Sunshine Millions, Bailey retired with 5,893 wins in a 31-year career. His last came aboard the filly Shakespearesister in a $33,000 allowance race on Friday at Gulfstream.
More: “I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been … Hell, I never expected to get out of New Mexico” … “There were tears all around until Bailey was asked if it upset him that he did not visit the winner’s circle for the 5,898th time. ‘Yeah, it does,’ he said, stopping in his tracks. ‘I know Silver Tree was probably the best horse in the race.'”
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Lava Man, winless since taking last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, came back into form to win the Sunshine Millions Classic. “He finally ran like he had been training,” said trainer Doug O’Neill.
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Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo may make his first start in eight months in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita next Saturday.

Posted in Jockeys on January 28, 2006

Thanks for the Memories

What New England racing fan doesn’t remember Jerry Bailey and Cigar winning the Massachusetts Handicap in 1995 and 1996? And what about Bailey on Arcangues in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic? Lowell Sun racing correspondent Paul Daley writes about great moments from the retiring rider’s career in this week’s Sun column, reprinted with permission here.
It’s a tale often told that things happen in threes.
With Jerry Bailey’s announcement on Wednesday that he will end his riding career in the Sunshine Million races at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28, the three greatest riders of our generation — Gary Stevens, Pat Day, and now Bailey — will have moved into different facets of the sport they so love within months of each other. Bailey and Stevens will be seen in the broadcasting end of the business while Day will remain immersed in his calling with the Racetrack Chaplaincy Program.
Rather than rehash Bailey’s career statistics, which were formidable enough even in 1995 to get him inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, I prefer to remember vignettes from the career of the son of a dentist from Dallas, Texas, who turned 48 years old last August 29.

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Posted in Jockeys on January 23, 2006

Bailey Calls it Quits

“He rode the great Cigar to a record-equaling 16 consecutive victories, captured two Kentucky Derbys and won seven Eclipse Awards as the nation’s most outstanding jockey, more than anyone else in history. But yesterday, Jerry Bailey called it quits despite remaining the most dominant jockey in America, if not the world.”
Saying he desired to spend more time with his family and lacked passion for riding on “routine” days, Bailey told reporters on Wednesday that his 32-year Hall of Fame career would end on January 28 at Gulfstream, where he plans to ride three or four races on the Sunshine Millions card. His final race will likely be aboard Silver Tree in the Turf for trainer Bill Mott, a fitting conclusion, given that Mott was responsible for putting Bailey on the horse he’s most associated with, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar.
Like Gary Stevens, who retired last fall, Bailey will take up a new career on TV, joining ABC and ESPN as a racing analyst. He leaves riding with few regrets: “I thought this thing through pretty well,” Bailey said. “I fulfilled everything I wanted to do.” Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Bailey said, “That I gave everybody their money’s worth, and that I always put a horse in position to win if he was good enough.”
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Bailey’s exit from the scene does leave one question: Who will ride trainer Frank Brothers’ talented Derby prospect First Samurai this spring? For next weekend’s Hutcheson at least, Edgar Prado.

Posted in Jockeys on January 19, 2006

Bailey Preps for Retirement

So reports Bill Finley, who writes that jockey Jerry Bailey “is close to reaching an agreement with ESPN and ABC to work as an analyst on racing telecasts for both networks when he does retire.” Bailey denied that he’d reached any deals and said that he would be riding at Gulfstream when it opens on January 4. “I’m going to start riding at Gulfstream,” Bailey said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”

Posted in Jockeys on December 13, 2005