Owner-breeder Jerry Bailey of Thunder Gulch and Lookin At Lucky fame dies at 78

Pinhooker, owner-breeder and veterinarian Jerry Bailey has died due to complications from pneumonia that followed a two-week battle with Covid-19, according to his wife Leslie Bailey. He was 78.

Bailey, a native of Dickinson, North Dakota, earned his veterinary degree at the University of Minnesota before moving to south Florida, where he was a racetrack practitioner for seven years, with the practice founded by Drs. M.B. Teigland, Thomas Brokken and Benjamin Franklin Jr. He left Florida to become the resident veterinarian for Ed Gaylord's Lazy E Ranch in Oklahoma.

"He eventually got moved up to general manager and built the training centre at the Lazy E," recalled Leslie Bailey. "We started training thoroughbreds there as well and he really loved training the horses more than doing office work."

To make better use of the training centre, Bailey had suggested to Gaylord that they start pinhooking some yearlings for the two-year-olds in training sales. They found a partner for the venture in Ken Ellenberg, a Minnesota native who was a small-time owner at Canterbury Park. After a couple of years, Gaylord got less interested in pinhooking while Bailey and Ellenberg saw more opportunity ahead.

The Baileys went back to Florida, where they started the Jerry Bailey Training Center near Morriston and started a pinhooking partnership with Ellenberg, initially called Cypress Farm.

One of their early successes was a Gulch colt named Thunder Gulch, who they bought for $40,000 at the 1993 Keeneland July select yearling sale and offered at the 1994 Keeneland April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, where he was bought back on a final bid of $120,000.

Bailey and Ellenberg raced the colt under the name Mutual Shar Stable. Thunder Gulch was second in the Grade 2 Cowdin Stakes before the partners sold the colt to Michael Tabor. With D Wayne Lukas, Thunder Gulch won the 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Bailey and Ellenberg also pinhooked Grade 1 winners Deputy Commander, Yes It's True, Honour And Glory and Twist Afleet.

Eventually Utah native and Quarter Horse owner-breeder Lance Robinson joined in and the three men formed Gulf Coast Bloodstock. Ellenberg eventually dropped out and others joined. Gulf Coast was a pinhooking and breeding operation that at one point had 120 boarded at Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Robinson and his wife Marla oversaw the breeding operation while the Baileys handled the breaking and training of the young horses.

Leslie Bailey said: "We were a good partnership. He had a great eye for picking out an individual that was an athlete, and I broke all the horses. We clicked really well."

The Gulf Coast Farms-bred Lookin At Lucky wins the 2010 Preakness Stakes under Martin GarciaCredit: Matt Wooley Equisport Photos

The stars bred and raised by Gulf Coast Farms include dual champion Lookin At Lucky, who was named champion two-year-old colt for 2009 after winning three Grade 1s and then champion three-year-old colt after winning the Preakness Stakes, Haskell Invitational Stakes, Rebel Stakes and Indiana Derby, the latter pair Grade 2s.

The Smart Strike colt won nine of 13 starts and earned $3,307,278. The farm also pinhooked multiple Grade 1 winner Henny Hughes and bred and sold multiple Graded stakes winners Cowtown Cat, Kensei and Salute The Sarge.

When picking out horses at a sale, Bailey told BloodHorse in 2007 that "first and foremost are conformation, physical, and athleticism.

"After that," he continued, "you would like to have a sire who you think has the chance to get a runner, or at least one who has proven that he can get a runner."

Bailey and Robinson also never hesitated to race a horse they believed in.

"We think we can better the horses' chances by going with a trainer that maybe has strong points for this or that, and kind of fit the horse to the trainer and the level of racing," Bailey told BloodHorse in 2007.

Gulf Coast shut down its breeding operation in 2010 and dispersed its breeding stock at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The Florida training centre continued to operate for some time but eventually the Baileys decided to "retire" to Oklahoma. They started the Quarter Circle 4 Bailey Ranch near Pauls Valley, Okla.

Jerry Bailey spent the early part of his retirement roping and later got interested in breeding and raising barrel racing horses.

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