ESPN Horse Racing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jerry Bailey is close to crossing the finish line for the final time in his Hall of Fame career. The 47-year-old jockey will ride in his 17th, and possibly last, Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

"It's somewhat likely,'' he said Tuesday at Churchill Downs. "I was hopeful during the spring that a live horse would come my way so I would be competitive. These are the kind of races that really get me pumped up, the Triple Crown, the Breeders' Cup. This is the highlight of my year.''

Bailey will be aboard Florida Derby winner High Fly, one of trainer Nick Zito's five Kentucky Derby entrants. Bailey last rode in the Derby two years ago, finishing second aboard Empire Maker.

He won the race in 1996 with Grindstone and in 1993 with Sea Hero. He made his Derby debut at 24 in 1982 on the aptly named New Discovery, who finished 18th.

"I was overwhelmed by the experience,'' Bailey recalled. "The fact that he was an also-ran was probably the best way I could experience my first Derby.''

He came close to retiring last November, feeling exhausted from a long season in the saddle and weekly trips between his riding base in New York and visiting his wife and son in Florida.

But after a month's rest, he decided to return. He'll worry about next year after the Breeders' Cup in late October.

For now, Bailey's mind is on the Derby.

With a full field of 20 horses expected, he knows even his best-laid plans can be derailed by a bad trip over 1\ miles.

"I compare it to walking midtown Manhattan with a backpack on,'' he said. "The less amount of times you have to bump people and stop and start, the easier it is on you to get through the crowd.''

"It's the same with the horses,'' he added. "The smoother and friendlier trip that you provide them with, the more energy they'll have to finish the race. It's more important to have a trouble-free trip, at least the first half-mile.''

Bellamy Road, owned by New York Yankees boss George Steinbrenner, is the Zito horse getting most of the pre-Derby hype. The colt won the Wood Memorial by 17{ lengths in what Bailey described as a "Secretariat-like performance.''

"If Bellamy Road plans on being on the lead, he better be Secretariat because there's a lot of speed in here,'' he said. "If he's out there (in front), there's going to be people taking shots at him every eighth of a mile.''

And Bailey figures High Fly will be one of those challengers. The colt has just one loss in six career starts and Bailey didn't ride that time.

"He's shown me he's got multiple gears so that I can move him and place him at different points as the race unfolds,'' he said. "The question mark is the distance, but he's got quite a few pluses. Chief among them is he wins a lot and there's a lot to be said for a horse that has a desire to win and finds a way to get it done all the time.''

So does Bailey, even when he was partying his way through the late 1970s and '80s while piling up more than 5,000 career wins.

"I never walked into the paddock falling down drunk, but I always had some alcohol in my system and I was always less than 100 percent the last four or five years of my addiction,'' he said.

Like most recovering alcoholics, Bailey can cite the date his sobriety began: Jan. 15, 1989.

"If somebody didn't reach out and help me, I guess I would probably be in jail, dead or an insane asylum because those are the three most likely scenarios for a person who cannot put the bottle down,'' he said.

He details the drinking problem that nearly derailed his marriage in his new autobiography, "Against the Odds: Riding for My Life.''

"The intention was to help somebody out there because somebody actually reached out and helped me,'' he said. "I felt the need to do the same.''

Bailey looks around the jockeys' room today and sees riders with drinking issues.

"I wouldn't say it's prevalent,'' he said. "The young guys coming up now treat it more like a business than I did. The mind-set and the amount of money that's available to be made is different.''

He paused, sipping out of a black plastic cup.

"I'm drinking out of a Jack Daniels cup,'' he said. "But it's water.''

Watch the Kentucky Derby on NBC this Saturday at 5 p.m. ET

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press