Jerry Bailey was born in Dallas Texas. He began his racing career in 1974 with a win on his first mount, Fetch, at New Mexico's Sunland Park, and has gone on to win over 4500 races. Among his numerous wins, he can boast four victories in Triple Crown races and a record 15 wins in Breeders' Cup races, including five Breeders' Cup Classics. Three of his Breeders' Cup Classic wins were consecutive 1993-1995. Bailey is perhaps most famous among racing fans as the regular rider of Cigar. When the 2003 Thoroughbred racing Eclipse Awards were handed out on January 26, 2004, Jerry Bailey was proclaimed the outstanding jockey in North America for an unprecedented seventh time (1995-1997 and 2000-2003), in 1997 he had been the first jockey to win three consecutive Eclipse Awards.

Bailey was selected for the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, arguably the top lifetime achievement award for North American jockeys, in 1992. In 1993 he won the Mike Venezia award and he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall Of Fame in 1995.

At 48-year-old Bailey seems to be getting better with age. He has set earnings records for two consecutive years, in 2001and 2002. He is the leading jockey in the history of the Breeders' Cup, with 15 victories and captured the Classic for the fifth time last year aboard Saint Liam. He scored 14 grade one wins in 2005 aboard 12 different runners: First Samurai (Champagne and Hopeful Stakes), Good Reward (Manhattan Handicap), High Fly, Roman Ruler (Haskell), Sand Springs (Diana Handicap), Saint Liam (Breeders Cup Classic and Woodward Stakes), Shakespeare (Joe Hirsch Turf Classic), Splendid Blended (Vanity Handicap), Stellar Jane (Ruffian Handicap), Summerly (Kentucky Oaks ), I’m the Tiger (DeFrancis Dash), and Sweet Symphony (Alabama Stakes)

He won the first two runnings of Dubai World Cup, on Cigar (1996) and Singspiel (1997), then won the race again in 2001 atop Captain Steve. He traveled abroad to partner Dubai Millennium to victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2000. His classic victories include, Kentucky Derby (Sea Hero-1993, Grindstone-1996), Preakness (Hansel-1991, Red Bullet-2000) and Belmont Stakes (Hansel-1991, Empire Maker-2003)

He recorded his 5000th career victory on Gaviola in the Beaugay Handicap at Aqueduct, May 6, 2001 and he became first rider to pass $20 million mark in career earnings on October 7, 2001, when he piloted Hap to victory in Shadwell Keeneland Turf Mile, ending that year with then record $22,015,720 in earnings.

Jerry Bailey set the single-season record for stakes victories by a jockey in 2003 at Aqueduct when he guided Congaree to a 5 1/4 length victory over Midas Eyes in the 16th running of the Cigar Mile. It was Bailey's 70th stakes win of the year. Not to be outdone, Congaree was also a history maker that day, becoming the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of the Cigar Mile.

He teamed with Tom Pedulla of USA TODAY last year to write his autobiography, “Against the Odds, Riding for My Life,” in which he detailed, among other things, his battle with alcoholism.

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