Jerry Bailey

Santa Anita's Great Race Place, with lots of workers and media on hand Monday, was abuzz. Down the street a couple of blocks, having lunch and itching to get to this weekend's Breeders' Cup, jockey Mike Smith was aglow. "Boy, I'm mounted well," he said. They will run six Breeders' Cup races Friday and nine more Saturday, with a total purse of $25.5 million. Like the money, story lines will be in abundance. Smith is best positioned to be a main character. It isn't just that he will ride in eight races, or that any of several rides could produce a treasured jockey record.

Jerry Bailey, Gulfstream Park's leading rider, rode Centennial Farm's Rubiano to a 1 3/4-length victory in Friday's $119,200 Westchester Handicap at Aqueduct. The winner covered the mile in 1:34 2/5 and paid $17. Sir Speedy, the early pacesetter, was second and Killer Diller third. Favored Profit Key broke fourth and never challenged.

If they had a football team for jockeys, Garrett Gomez would play middle linebacker. Wednesday at Santa Anita, showing that tough guys can come in small packages, the 114-pound battler tackled a task in a style, and in a circumstance, that would have made Dick Butkus proud. In so doing, he made the '08 finale at the Great Race Place a dramatic one. Gomez entered the day's racing with a chance to break Jerry Bailey's all-time money-winning record for a season.

Jerry Bailey was elected Monday to fill the unexpired term of retiring Jockeys' Guild President Bill Shoemaker at the annual meeting in Las Vegas. Shoemaker, who is retiring as a jockey in February, served as guild president since 1975. Bailey takes over on Feb. 5 and will serve until next year's board meeting when members will elect a president to serve a full two-year term.

Its Acedemic caught up with the leaders entering the stretch and then went on to a 1 1/2-length victory in the $113,000 Stymie handicap Monday at Aqueduct. The victory was the first in three starts this year for the 6-year-old who was ridden by Jorge Velasquez. Congeleur, 115, ridden by Jerry Bailey, set the pace going into the stretch and held on for a second-place finish, beating King's Swan, 115, by two lengths.

Jerry Bailey rode his fourth winner of the card when he guided Fast'N'Gold to a neck victory in Wednesday's $47,000 Dr. Schwartzman purse for 3 year olds and up at Belmont Park. Bally Blue was runner-up in the seven horse field, 3 3/4-lengths ahead of Fuller's Folly. Fast'N'Gold carried 117 pounds and was timed in 1:59 3/5 for 1 1/4 miles on the firm Inner Turf Course.

Grecian Flight, the odds-on favorite, overtook Nada Bid late in the stretch and won the $86,000 Iroquois Stakes for fillies and mares at Aqueduct race track Sunday. Grecian Flight, top-weighted at 121 pounds and ridden by Craig Perret, finished 1 1/4 lengthsin front of Nada Bid, who was ridden by Jerry Bailey and carried 114 pounds. Aljadam was third in the field of six.

For the third time in less than a year, a legendary jockey is ending his career. Jerry Bailey, 48 and a member of racing's Hall of Fame since 1995, announced his retirement Wednesday during a conference call. Bailey's decision, which he had been considering for the last couple of years, came after Pat Day and Gary Stevens had retired in 2005. The Texas-born Bailey, who began riding at Sunland Park in New Mexico in 1974, will begin work as a racing analyst for ABC and ESPN.

Intercontinental is a difficult mare to ride, but jockey Jerry Bailey certainly has the touch with the daughter of Danehill. Bailey has won five of the last seven times he has ridden Intercontinental and he will be at Del Mar today to ride her in the $200,000 Palomar Breeders' Cup Handicap. A Grade II at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, the Palomar attracted five others, including John C. Mabee Handicap winner Amorama.

In two pairings with jockey Jerry Bailey, Summerly has not come close to defeat. With the Hall of Fame rider aboard for the first time in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 12, the 3-year-old daughter of Summer Squall won the Grade II by 4 3/4 lengths as the 1-2 favorite. After a one-race absence, Bailey was back for the Kentucky Oaks, a Grade I, on May 6 and Summerly upset Sis City, winning by two lengths at odds of 9-2.

One of the happiest people after Pleasantly Perfect's one-length win Sunday in the $1-million Pacific Classic was on the periphery of the winner's-circle celebration. He was just 5 feet 3, wearing a neck and back stabilizer. Alex Solis has ridden Pleasantly Perfect to some of his biggest wins -- Breeders' Cup and Dubai included -- but he's on the sidelines now, the result of a spill that fractured a vertebrae and a few ribs on July 23.

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.

With a sweep of the three graded stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday, jockey Jerry Bailey surpassed Mike Smith's record for stakes victories in a season. Thanks to victories by Ashado in the $200,000 Demoiselle, Read the Footnotes in the $200,000 Remsen and Congaree in the $350,000 Cigar Mile, Bailey has 70 stakes scores in 2003, two more than Smith had in 1994.

The Angel Penna-trained entry of Montubio and Mi Selecto ran 1-2 in Saturday's $403,300 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park, although investigation of a foul claim prompted stewards to switch the order of finish. Mi Selecto, ridden by Jerry Bailey, finished the 1 1/2 miles a head in front of Montubio, with Jacinto Vasquez in the saddle.

Tabbed to ride Subordination in the $500,000 Hollywood Derby by trainer Gary Sciacca primarily because he already was in California for other mounts in Hollywood Park's Turf Festival, Jerry Bailey came through with his 13th Grade I victory of 1997. Second for the first six furlongs, Subordination, a 12-1 shot, kicked clear early in the stretch, then defeated Lasting Approval, the 9-2 favorite, to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:50 for the 1 1/8 miles on a yielding grass course.

With 66 stakes victories, jockey Jerry Bailey is two shy of the single-season record set nine years ago by Mike Smith. Bailey, who also is in position to surpass his earnings record of $22,871,814 set in 2002, could overhaul Smith today at Calder. The country's leading rider almost annually, Bailey has mounts in five of the six stakes races on the Miami track's Florida Million card. All 12 races are restricted to Florida-breds.

Reluctant to get started in the $1.5-million Breeders' Cup Mile, Six Perfections was in a rush to finish. A handful before loading into her stall near the extreme outside, so much so that jockey Jerry Bailey jumped off, the 3-year-old French-bred was all business once the gates opened Saturday.