Logan Bailey, longtime DRF bureau chief and writer, dies at 75

Former Daily Racing Form Kentucky Bureau chief Logan Bailey, an award-winning journalist, died Tuesday in Lexington, Ky., after a very brief illness. He was 75.

Bailey worked for Daily Racing Form for 46 years and was still working part-time until his death due to congestive heart failure.

Born April 7, 1940, in Frankfort, Ky., Bailey graduated from the University of Kentucky and first started covering racing for the Lexington Herald when he was the newspaper’s assistant sports editor. He was working in the advertising department of the then-weekly Thoroughbred Record, the last year as advertising director, when hired by then-DRF Kentucky Bureau chief Ercel Ellis to write a twice-weekly column called “In The Bluegrass” in August 1971. The column reported on breeding news and the stallions and stud farms in Central Kentucky. In addition to his writing responsibilities, Bailey also helped sell advertising.

“He could do it all,” Ellis said. “He was the best.”

Bailey was named Kentucky Bureau chief in 1984 when Ellis left the Daily Racing Form to train horses.

In 1979, Bailey received the Charles W. Engelhard Award from the Thoroughbred Breeders of Kentucky for outstanding media coverage of racing. He was the 10th recipient of that award, following other DRF writers Mickey McGuire (1972), whom Bailey succeeded as a columnist, and Joe Hirsch (1974).

Bailey was active in youth baseball for some 40 years, with the South Lexington Youth Baseball organization, and for his role with SLYB he was one of the initial inductees in the East Kentucky Babe Ruth Baseball Hall of Fame and a field at SYLB is named in his honor.

Bailey is survived by his wife, Linda; sons Randy and Rick, who is the registrar at the Jockey Club in Lexington; daughter Robyn Fox, who has worked for Daily Racing Form since 2001; and nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“It was a privilege working with my father at the Racing Form,” Robyn said. “It was a pleasure to work with him and see both sides of him. He loved the Racing Form.”

Visitation will be at Kerr Brothers Funeral home on Harrodsburg Road in Lexington from 4-8 p.m. Sunday. The funeral service will be 12:30 p.m. Monday at Kerr Brothers, with burial at Lexington Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to South Lexington Youth Baseball, PO Box 24236, Lexington, KY 40524.