As Time Goes By, Bailey Gets Better

Starting in the mid-1990s, at luxury hotels from Rancho Mirage to Miami Beach, Jerry Bailey has been making these acceptance speeches after some- one hands him an Eclipse Award. He will do this for the seventh time -- and fourth year in a row -- on Monday at the Eclipse dinner in Hollywood, Fla.

You would think that by now he would be repeating himself on the dais, but Bailey says there’s no chance of that.

“Each one is just as rewarding as the next,” the Hall of Fame jockey said. “The last few in particular, because these have come at a time when I’ve been mapping out my career on a year-to-year basis. You appreciate something more when you think that it could always be an honor that won’t come your way again.”

It would appear that the only way another jockey might win an Eclipse is for the 46-year-old Bailey to retire. The vote for 2003, which will be announced Monday when the horse-of-the-year award and all of the other Eclipses are presented, shouldn’t even be close.

The other finalists, Edgar Prado and Pat Valenzuela, had outstanding years, but the bar Bailey set was in the ozone. He rode 776 races, far fewer than many leading jockeys, and he won 206, which was 28th on that list, but in purses and stakes wins, it was no contest. Bailey’s horses earned $23.3 million, which broke by more than $4 million the record he had set in 2002, and his 70 stakes wins surpassed the record of 68 set by Mike Smith in 1994.

Bailey did not ride much in the year’s closing weeks and still reached those peaks. He broke Smith’s record, with his 69th stakes winner, on Nov. 29, and he passed his old purse record on Oct. 5. Prado, who finished second on the money list with $18.4 million, was never a threat.

Much of Bailey’s success came on horses trained by Bobby Frankel, who also had an outstanding year, and it is Frankel horses, mainly, who have lured Bailey away from his winter headquarters at Gulfstream Park to ride at Santa Anita this weekend.

On Sunshine Millions day on Saturday, Bailey will ride two Frankel contenders -- favored Peace Rules in the $1-million Classic and Ice Wynnd Fire in the Dash -- and Bailey will stay over Sunday to ride the Frankel-trained Sightseek in the Grade I Santa Monica Handicap. Bailey’s other Sunshine Million mounts are Atlantic Ocean in the Filly & Mare Turf and Bear Fan in the Filly & Mare Sprint.

Bailey rode 26 Grade I winners in 2003 -- Prado, in second place, trailed by 16 -- and 14 were for Frankel, who broke the Grade I record for trainers with 25 wins. The Frankel-Bailey relationship began in 2000, the same year Bailey fired Bob Frieze, his agent for 14 years, and hired Californian Ron Anderson.

“Bob and I had gotten stale,” Bailey said. “There was complacency on both sides. Ron wasn’t with [the temporarily retired] Gary Stevens anymore, and I thought he was the best agent in the country.”

In July 2000, with Anderson having moved East, Bailey was in New York, watching on TV when Del Mar ran the Eddie Read Handicap. Frankel’s horse, Chester House, was ridden by David Flores to a second-place finish behind Ladies Din. Chester House looked to be the kind of horse Bailey thought he could ride, so he directed Anderson to ask Frankel if they could have the mount in the Arlington Million. Three weeks later, Bailey rode Chester House to a 3 1/4-length win at Arlington Park.

“I thought that was one of the best rides I ever gave a horse,” Bailey said.

The Million was the only race Chester House won all year and the last race of the horse’s career.

“Jerry puts a lot of time and effort into what he does,” Frankel said. “He’s very well-prepared going into every race. By the time he gets to the paddock, he knows everything there is to know about the horse he’s riding, and he knows everything about the horses he’s riding against. I had a jockey describe a horse he was riding for me the other day, and it was like he was talking about a different horse.”

Bailey said he didn’t know if this would be his last year in the saddle. He has won more than 5,500 races and his career purses, going into 2004, were at $264.5 million, second to the still-active Pat Day with $285.2 million.

“I’m still playing it year by year,” Bailey said. “I still have some goals. For one thing, I’d like to win a Kentucky Derby that my son would be at Churchill Downs to see.”

Suzee and Jerry Bailey’s only child, Justin Daniel, was a newborn when Bailey won his first Derby, with Sea Hero in 1993. Bailey’s other Derby win, with Grindstone three years later, also came when Justin was too young to travel. Last year, Bailey finished second to Funny Cide with the Frankel-trained Empire Maker, then cost Funny Cide the Triple Crown by beating him with the same colt in the Belmont Stakes.

One of Bailey’s Kentucky Derby possibilities this year is Birdstone, who finished off a light 2-year-old campaign with a win in the Champagne at Belmont Park in October. Bailey will choose between Read The Footnotes and Stolen Time, both probables for the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 14.

“It’s not as easy sorting them out,” Bailey said. “Most trainers aren’t running their horses in that many preps before the Derby. So you’ve got to make your decision based on fewer races.”

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Bailey beat Belichick on Thursday at Gulfstream Park. This Belichick, a 4-year-old colt named after Bill Belichick, coach of the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots, ran third in an allowance race that was won by Parhelion, with Bailey aboard.... Pat Valenzuela has hired Corey Black, a retired jockey and commentator for the Television Games Network, as his new agent. Valenzuela didn’t ride Thursday, telling Santa Anita stewards that he had sprained his ankle leaving the house.... Sarava, making only his second start since winning the 2002 Belmont, was next to last in the seventh race.... Oak Tree Special, who won 10 of 13 starts, including four derbies, was voted world champion quarter horse for 2003. The Down Side, winner of the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos, became the first winner of that stake in eight years who didn’t win the world championship.

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The Facts

* What: Sunshine Millions, eight races (four at Santa Anita, four at Gulfstream Park) for California- and Florida-bred horses.

* When: Saturday. First post at Santa Anita, noon. First Sunshine Millions post, 12:45 p.m. from Gulfstream. First Sunshine Millions post at Santa Anita, 1:03 p.m. Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita, 2:45 p.m.

* Santa Anita: $250,000 Dash, $300,000 Filly & Mare Sprint, $500,000 Filly & Mare Turf, $1-million Classic.

* Gulfstream: $250,000 Oaks, $300,000 Sprint, $500,000 Distaff, $500,000 Turf.

* Classic field (in post-position order): Continental Red, Midas Eyes, Grey Memo, Excessivepleasure, Standard Setter, Hot Market, Peace Rules, White Buck, Southern Image, Touch The Wire, Excess Summer, The Judge Sez Who. Also eligible: Commander’s Flag, Pay The Preacher.

* Last year: Florida-breds won seven of eight races.

* Television: Channel 4, 1-3 p.m.