Jerry Bailey

Jerry D. Bailey (born August 29, 1957 in Dallas, Texas) is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey.

Bailey was born in Dallas but raised in El Paso.

He had a pony as a child and became interested in thoroughbred racing at age 11 when his father, James, a dentist, claimed some horses at nearby Sunland Park Racetrack in New Mexico.

Bailey took his first racetrack job at Sunland a few years later as a groom for trainer J.J. Pletcher and an occasional babysitter for Pletcher's son, Todd, then in the second grade, who later would follow in his father's footsteps and eventually become America's most successful trainer.

Bailey's first official ride came on November 2, 1974, on Pegged Rate at Sunland.

That horse finished unplaced, but Bailey won with both his mounts the next day, scoring his first career victory aboard Fetch.

He had no grand ambitions: "I didn't think I'd ever leave New Mexico", he says.

The next year, Bailey was the leading apprentice jockey at Sunland and Ak-Sar-Ben, where he rode his first stakes winner, Pletcher-trained 3-year-old filly Bye Bye Battle, in the $25,000 His Majesty's Council Handicap on May 24, 1975.

After briefly attending college that fall at the University of Texas at El Paso, Bailey returned to the saddle to be leading apprentice at Oaklawn Park in 1976.

In the fall of 1976, Bailey moved his tack to the south Florida circuit of Calder Race Course, Gulfstream Park and Hialeah Park, and over the next few years he also made stops at Hollywood Park, Monmouth Park, Hawthorne Race Course and Arlington Park.

In 1982, Bailey began riding regularly at the major New York tracks – Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga – while returning to Florida in the winters, a popular circuit he would continue riding the remainder of his career, and would later dominate.

Regarded as one of the world's all-time greatest jockeys, Bailey's mounts won 5,893 races and $296 million during a 31-year riding career.

He rode Fit to Fight, who in 1984 swept what was then known as the New York Handicap Triple with wins in the Metropolitan Handicap, Suburban Handicap and Brooklyn Handicap.

He was chosen by his peers to receive the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1992, which honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of racing.

In 1993, he received the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, honoring jockeys who exemplify extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship, from the New York Racing Association.

Among Bailey's 15 victories in Breeders' Cup races, his 1993 Classic shocker on French import Arcangues ranks as among the biggest upsets in thoroughbred racing history.

Bailey had never before ridden Arcangues and picked up the mount nine days before the race.

The colt's groom tried to give Bailey instructions in French in the paddock, and Bailey was able to speak only briefly to trainer André Fabre while he was already on Arcangues' back in the walking ring.

Bailey glanced at the oddsboard during the post parade and decided he needed to stay close to the rail as long as possible in hopes of cracking the top five, but became increasingly confident as the race progressed.

Arcangues stormed past favorite Bertrando in the stretch at Santa Anita to win comfortably at 133-to-1 odds, paying a Breeders' Cup-record $269.20 for a $2 win ticket.

"I still don't know how to pronounce his name", Bailey said afterwards.

His seven Saratoga riding championships – second only to Ángel Cordero Jr.'s 14 titles – came in an eight-year span between 1994 and 2001, a streak interrupted in 1998 when John Velazquez topped the standings.

Bailey had many prominent mounts, but will be best remembered as the regular jockey of Cigar, who tied the modern North American record for consecutive wins at 16, including an undefeated Horse of the Year campaign in 1995 capped by a win in the Breeders Cup Classic.

The next spring, Bailey and Cigar teamed to win the inaugural Dubai World Cup.

Bailey was inducted into the American Racing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Bailey also won the All-Star Jockey Championship in 2001 and 2004 at Lone Star Park.

From a statistical perspective, Bailey's best season in the saddle was 2003, due in large part to his growing association with late trainer Robert Frankel, whose stable during that time was one of the most formidable in the modern history of the sport.

Included in his 2003 victories were 26 wins in Grade 1 stakes races, a record that still stands.

Fourteen of those Grade 1 victories were on horses trained by Frankel, including Empire Maker, Medaglia d'Oro, Sightseek and Aldebaran.

Through his own words and actions, Bailey was most fond of riding in the summers at Saratoga Race Course – America's most prestigious race meeting.

"I am worn out at the end of (Saratoga)", Bailey once said.

"I try to pace myself all year to get ready for that one meet."

On August 6, 2004, Bailey rode Taittinger Rose to his 641st Saratoga victory, surpassing Cordero's career record – although Cordero's totals were remarkable considering Saratoga raced only 24 days a year until 1991.

At the time of his retirement in January 2006, he ranked No. 2 on the career North American money list and still ranks No. 3. He won each Triple Crown race twice (his winning Kentucky Derby rides through traffic on Sea Hero in 1993 and Grindstone in 1996 are considered two of the best in modern Derby history); scored a record five wins in the Breeders' Cup Classic, the richest race in the U.S.; notched a record four victories in the Dubai World Cup, the world's richest race; and is the only jockey ever to win America's Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey seven times, including an unprecedented four straight years (2000–2003).

That year, Bailey won a career-high $23,354,960 million in purses, a North American record that stood until broken in 2012 by Ramon Domínguez.

Bailey's career total of 693 Saratoga wins lasted until broken in 2013 by Velazquez – whose agent is Cordero.

Bailey scored 109 victories in Saratoga stakes races, including 35 Grade 1 wins: the Test Stakes (six times), Hopeful Stakes (six), Whitney Handicap (five), Alabama Stakes (four), Travers Stakes (three), Forego Handicap (three), Go For Wand Handicap (three), Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap (once), Personal Ensign Stakes (once), Jim Dandy Stakes (once), King's Bishop Stakes (once) and the Ballerina Stakes (once).

He also won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap seven times, and the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes six times.

Bailey's most enduring and successful professional relationships were with Hall of Fame trainers MacKenzie Miller, Bill Mott and Bobby Frankel, and with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai who with his brothers and family operates a global racing and breeding powerhouse.

Bailey made a stop at Miller's barn every morning for coffee and conversation, and riding for Miller and owner Paul Mellon helped take his career to new heights.