Robert Clive Bailey – always known by his second Christian name – was born at Dorset on June 26, 1946.
He was apprenticed to Toby Balding between 1961 and 1968 and thereafter spent almost his entire career with Balding, who knew him simply as ‘RC’.
He rode his first winner on Bobby Rock at Chepstow on August 13, 1965, plus two more on the Flat, before switching codes to ride over the sticks. Standing barely 5ft 2in, he was not built for riding chasers and so became a good specialist hurdles-only jockey.
He rode “around 100” winners, enjoying his best season in 1977/78 with 12 winners.
The best horses he rode were stable companions Official and Salviati, who were two of the top juvenile hurdlers in the 1971/72 season. His biggest wins came on Official in Newbury’s Challow Hurdle (December 31, 1971) and Kempton’s Yellow Pages Hurdle in 1972. He partnered Salviati into a close sixth place in the Triumph Hurdle.
After he retired he ran a pub for a short while but soon returned to work for Toby Balding and became head lad when the trainer moved to Whitcombe. When Toby retired, Clive stayed on for four years as head lad to Toby’s son-in-law Jonathan Geake.
He died peacefully in hospital in Winchester on Sunday, March 5, 2017, surrounded by his family. He left a son, Jos, and a granddaughter, Chloe.
