El Paso's Jerry Bailey to analyze Preakness for NBC Sports

Coronado High School grad, UTEP student and hall-of fame jockey Jerry Bailey will be an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of the Preakness Stakes Saturday, May 16.

Although he was born in Dallas, Bailey cut his racing chops at the Sunland Park racetrack.

His father, Jim Bailey, moved his pediatric dental business to El Paso in 1962 and credits that move to his son’s success.

In an April 20, 1980, interview the senior Bailey said when Jerry Bailey was growing up in El Paso, people would often ask: “Are you Doc Bailey’s son?”

Now it’s fairly common for Dr. Jim Bailey, the well-known pediatric dentist, to have this question put to him: “Are you Jerry Bailey’s father?”

Working on dreams

Dick Alwan of the El Paso Times interviewed the 18-year-old jockey for a Jan. 4, 1976, article:

Boy meets horse. Boy decides to be a jockey. Boy works hard, puts in years of rough work and sweat and disappointment. Finally, boy turns into a man. And success finally comes. Hard work pays off.

But Jerry Bailey, the 18-year-old jockey from Elena Paso, is giving the story a new twist. Regretfully, there’s no inspirational message in what he’s doing. There’s no Sunday school moral based on diligent work and keeping one’s nose to the grindstone and all the rest of it.

What stamps Bailey apart is the fact he skipped all those years of hard work. Success wasn't a long way down the road. It came up right away. You look at Jerry Bailey, and he certainly seems innocent enough. He has an angelic quality. He wears the latest in mod clothes and looks like a kid living on top of the world. And, like any other jockey-on-the-way up, he drives a brand-new cherry-red Cadillac, complete with plaid interior and the rich, redolent smell of new leather.

The car, of course, was purchased from Bailey Cadillac — a little operation owned by his uncle. Jerry's pop is in a slightly different line of work. He’s Dr. Jim Bailey, a children’s dentist in El Paso, and from what we surmise, quite a good one.

So, you might say riding racehorses is a long way from such established family ventures as selling Cadillacs to the well-to-do and repairing cavities in the mouths of babes. Thus, the obvious question: what in the world is Jerry Bailey doing at the racetrack, and how come he's doing so well so fast?

He talks to horses

In the first place, he talks to horses. Undoubtedly, they understand his lingo. With that kind of communication, no wonder a horse gets in high gear in a hurry. “I really can't explain this ability I have with horses,’’ Jerry starts in, talking in that lucid, bright way of his. “I just know I click with horses. Sometimes I'll be on a horse with bad habits, but I'll sweet-talk him and pat him on the neck. It's the way you talk to them, the tone of your voice.

Like when I was riding Misty's Senorita, We'd be moving along, and I'd say to her, ‘There you go,’ nice and soft. Sometimes it almost seems I can put myself right into a horse's brain —like I'm part of the horse."

Sweet-talking, a spiritual connection, are only part of the Jerry Bailey story. As anyone around Sunland Park will tell you, he’s a natural. For example, there was the time about a year ago, at the start of his career, when Bailey came roaring down the stretch on the 15-1 shot, Fetch. “I was whipping on the right side, and he began veering in,"' Bailey recalled. ‘Then I shifted to the left hand, to straighten him. The thing was I didn't even know I'd done it. It just came naturally. I remember thinking the horse was starting to go in, and I had to do something.” The move paid off, and Bailey was in the winner's circle.

The story really began when Bailey was 10 or 11 years old. He got exposed to racing through his father, who owned several racehorses. “I just decided I wanted to be a jockey,” he said. But he had no inkling he would be especially good at it. ‘I played basketball and football, but I was just fair. So, when I decided to be a jockey, I never thought it would turn out the way it has.”

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‘Everything I dreamed about came true’

During his days at Coronado High School, he was an excellent student. He drew A and B grades. On Nov. 3, 1974, his thinking drifted a little away from academic circles. That's when he started riding at Sunland Park. And life for Jerry Bailey hasn't been quite the same since. “Everything I dreamed about came true,"’ he said. ‘‘Just the way I pictured it. I thought it would be fun to be a jockey, and it is — even more fun than I thought. I enjoy the people I meet, and learning about their lives, and getting around to so many places.”

And Bailey admits it’s even a kick being a sort of celebrity and enjoying the public limelight. But that’s all part of the game, and nothing to get big-headed about. “I’m just doing the things I like to do,” he says. ‘‘Just because I drive a big car, it doesn’t mean I'm anything special. Anyway, this is kind of unreal, somehow, with the publicity and all. It feels out of place, like it's not any of my doing. It’s just the horses I get on.”

On a skyrocket

There's no denying the fact Bailey has been on a skyrocket. As of this writing, he’s won 108 races — and he's still an apprentice (which means his horses get a five-pound reduction in weight, thus improving their chances of winning.) Normally, Bailey's apprenticeship would have expired on the first anniversary of his fifth win. But he got an extension due to the fact he put in a semester at college.

At the end of the last semester at the University of Texas at El Paso, Bailey dropped out of school, as he had planned. He’s now riding at Louisiana Downs. From there, it'll be on to such relatively big-league tracks as Oaklawn Park and Ak-Sar-Ben. Late in the fall, he'll be back in the Southwest to ride at the Albuquerque State Fair meeting.

A few lethargic statistics are needed to flush out a remarkable year of accomplishments. Last spring, for example, Bailey finished up as Sunland’s fourth-leading rider.

He won the $25,000-added His Majesty's Council Handicap at Ak-Sar-Ben aboard Bye Bye Battle. At the end of the season, he was ninth in the standings. At Santa Fe Downs, he won 23 races in one month. At the State Fair meeting, he booted in 19 winners and took the championship.

If there's been a rough spot in Bailey's career, it's hard to find. Maybe this: one will do: “I was on this horse, and we were really going along, and he took a bad step. He broke his knee, and the next thing I remember there were hooves all over me. It knocked me out. I tried to get up. Then I passed out again."

While recovering in the jockeys’ quarters, he felt pretty scared. “It shook me up, all right. But when I got on my next horse, the fear went away.”

So, what does Bailey do but win that next race. That's the way it goes, when a dream comes true.

Bailey retired with 5,893 wins

Bailey retired from horse racing in 2006, at age 48. In his 31-year career he was a two-time Kentucky Derby winner, two-time Preakness Stakes winner, two-time Belmont Stakes winner and won 15 Breeders' Cup races. He was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Hall of fame jockey Jerry Bailey got his start at Sunland Park racetrack