Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey.
Bailey announced his retirement January 19, 2006. His farewell mount was January 28 in a $500,000 stakes at Gulfstream Park aboard Silver Tree – fittingly for Mott, former trainer of Cigar. In the paddock before the race, Silver Tree kicked Bailey in the hip – "I guess I went out with a bang", Bailey said – and they went on to finish second as the odds-on favorites. In the summer of 2006, Bailey began his second career as a thoroughbred racing analyst for ESPN. When ESPN discontinued its horse racing coverage in 2012, Bailey moved to NBC. Bailey's final mount as a jockey would actually come on October 18, 2008, at Santa Anita in the "Living Legends Race", in which he joined seven fellow retired Hall of Fame riders to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Breeders' Cup. Mounts were selected by random draw for the seven-furlong allowance sprint, which was open to pari-mutuel betting and thus considered an official race and not an exhibition. Bailey rode Dee Dee's Legacy to a second-place finish behind Tribal Chief, ridden by Sandy Hawley.
