Coal Battle and Company Settling In at Churchill Downs

Lonnie Briley's first starter at Churchill Downs came three years ago in the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes on the Thursday of Derby week. Although his trainee Cool Spirit (Mor Spirit) broke a step slow and finished last, the experience left Briley with lasting memories of Louisville.

“I tell you, when the horses took off running, it was like there was an airplane taking off,” Briley recalled with a soft-spoken Cajun drawl. “It was like a big roar, like the bleachers could come off the ground. It was the first time I've seen a grandstand that covers half the track, all the way down the lane and into the first turn.”

If Briley thought the crowd at 'Thurby' was impressive, he's in for a real show come Derby day.

Briley, age 72, has been a veteran trainer on the Louisiana circuit for over three decades. He had never ran a horse in a graded stake until this year, when stable star Coal Battle (Coal Front) stormed home in the GII Rebel Stakes.

Briley picked out Coal Battle for just $70,000 at the 2023 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling Sale for his longtime client Norman Stables. The horseman thought the colt could be something special last summer, when he came flying late to get up for fourth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes behind eventual fellow Derby hopeful Tiztastic (Tiz The Law). But even at the start of this year, Briley was not exactly Derby dreaming.

“I never even thought about it really,” he admitted. “It was never on the bucket list. I didn't think I'd have that kind of horse and then when I found him, I was just looking for a racehorse. I had three on my short list and I kept going back to him and ended up saying that he was the one I wanted.”

Briley and Coal Battle, along with three of the colt's stablemates, arrived at Churchill Downs this past Sunday with just under four weeks to go until the first Saturday in May.

Tuesday morning, Briley watched from the backside viewing stand as Coal Battle put in his first work at Churchill Downs. As the temperature hovered just above freezing, Coal Battle stepped onto the track and paused to take in the view of the sunrise and the twin spires before jogging off.

“You see how he does that?” Briley asked with a proud grin. “Every day he'll look and observe. He's made over a million dollars doing that, so that's okay.”

Briley's exercise rider and assistant trainer Bethany Taylor had her work cut out for her as Coal Battle eagerly cruised through a breeze that stretched out maybe a little further than the intended half a mile. The Churchill Downs clockers recorded the colt going four furlongs in :48.40.

Back at the barn, Coal Battle didn't seem fazed by the workout. Taylor said this is the norm for the athletic colt.

“He's funny because whenever he works–doesn't matter if he's going three-eighths, half a mile or five-eighths–he'll gallop out as far as he wants to and when I go to pull him back to bring him up, he'll put his head down and start bucking a little bit.”

Lonnie Briley oversees Coal Battle's arrival at Churchill Downs | Coady Media

Briley reported that the plan is for Coal Battle to work five furlongs next week, six furlongs the following week, and then a quick three furlongs five days before the Derby.

While Coal Battle is all energy on the racetrack, the colt is much more easygoing in the barn.

“He'll lay down most of the day and then he'll stand in his corner,” Briley explained. “If somebody comes to his door, he's gonna come meet them and play with them. He's neat, you know, it's like he talks to you in his own little way. After every race, he'll come back to the barn wheeling and squealing like he didn't even run.”

Coal Battle has won five of his eight lifetime starts, highlighted by four straight stakes victories that culminated in the GII Rebel where he defeated the likes of Madaket Road (Quality Road), Sandman (Tapit) and Publisher (American Pharoah). In the GI Arkansas Derby with jockey Juan Vargas aboard, Coal Battle took the lead at the top of the stretch, but was overtaken by closers Sandman and Publisher.

If they could get a do-over in the race, Briley said he believes the outcome may have been different.

“He was a little too fresh,” he admitted. “I had to saddle him on the walk and I've never had to do that with him before. Then the rider punched the button too quickly. At the half-mile pole he sent him and that was too early. If he had waited until the 5/16th pole, I think he'd have had a good shot. He has a really quick turn of foot. It's just knowing when to push the button. You have to be patient with him. But he still ran good and he came back good.”

Following the Oaklawn meet, Briley sent three of the seven trainees he had there back home to Louisiana, where he has a string of about 20 horses at Evangeline Downs, and brought the other four with him to Kentucky. The conditioner is hoping to get races into each of those horses between the Keeneland and Churchill Downs meets.

Go Captain (Mo Town), a 4-year-old colt also owned by Norman Stables, broke his maiden at Kentucky Downs last summer and was second in his most recent start at Oaklawn on March 7. Following a bullet :58.80 work on Tuesday, Briley hopes to enter him at Keeneland next week.

With an admirable youthful zest, Briley plans to make a quick trip to Ocala next week for the OBS April Sale before returning to Louisville to put in the final two weeks of preparation for the Kentucky Derby.

Briley and Coal Battle are undoubtedly one of this year's Derby Cinderella stories. To what does Briley attribute his growing fan base?

“Well I'm from over there, where they talk like dat,” he said with an easygoing grin and a deep bayou twang. Then he added, “There is pressure, more than anything. A horse race is a horse race, but when you get to the Kentucky Derby, it's a little more.”