Jerry D. Bailey biography
Jerry D. Bailey, in full Jerry Dale Bailey, (born Aug. 29, 1957, Dallas, Texas, U.S.), American Thoroughbred racing jockey who gained 5,893 races over a profession that spanned 4 a long time.
He was the son of a outstanding dentist who dabbled in racing as a horse proprietor. Bailey had ambitions to take part in crew sports activities, however his diminutive stature (5 ft 5 inches [1.65 metres]) finally led him to the racetrack to pursue a profession as a jockey. He started his skilled using profession at New Mexico’s Sunland Park, the place in November 1974, at age 17, he gained the primary race during which he rode, on a horse named Fetch. Bailey loved appreciable success across the nation previous to establishing his presence as a rising star on the New York state circuit in 1982. He solidified his nationwide stature with victories astride Hansel within the 1991 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, gained his first Kentucky Derby in 1993 with Sea Hero, and was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame two years later. Bailey gained his second Kentucky Derby using Grindstone in 1996, added one other Preakness win in 2000 with Red Bullet, and captured the 2003 Belmont on Empire Maker. In July 1996 he guided Cigar, a two-time Horse of the Year, to a sixteenth consecutive victory, equaling the trendy period report set by 1948 Triple Crown champion Citation. On May 6, 2001, at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York, Bailey recorded his milestone 5,000th profession win, and later that 12 months he grew to become the primary rider to achieve $20 million in purse earnings for a single season.
When the 2003 Thoroughbred racing Eclipse Awards had been handed out on Jan. 26, 2004, Jerry Bailey was proclaimed the excellent jockey in North America for an unprecedented seventh time (1995–97 and 2000–03); in 1997 he had been the primary jockey to win three consecutive Eclipse Awards. Bailey had recorded extra victories within the prestigious Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships than another rider within the 20-year historical past of the competitors (13; he was so as to add 2 extra victories earlier than his retirement in 2006) and had led the nation’s riders in whole purse earnings seven instances, together with a report $23,354,960 in 2003. Although he was maybe not as universally acknowledged as such legendary jockeys as Johnny Longden, Eddie Arcaro, Bill Shoemaker, and Bill Hartack, the intensely aggressive Bailey’s dominance of Thoroughbred racing over the earlier decade earned him a historic place of their firm.
In later years Bailey established private limits on the variety of horses he rode primarily based on standards that emphasised high quality moderately than amount. When Bailey retired from racing on Jan. 28, 2006, he had amassed 5,893 profession wins and ranked second on the all-time earnings checklist at the moment with a complete of $296,104,129. His autobiography, Against the Odds: Riding for My Life, was revealed in 2005.