Pedigree fun facts: Coal Battle

Jan 11, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Fans of Seattle Slew have at least six reasons to embrace Coal Battle – that’s how many times the 1977 Triple Crown legend appears in his pedigree!

Both of Coal Battle’s parents, Coal Front and Wolfblade, sport three crosses of Seattle Slew. Coal Front comes from the sire line of “Slew’s” greatest son, A.P. Indy, who also factors elsewhere in his ancestry along with a daughter of Slew. Wolfblade’s pedigree includes two other Slew stallions, Avenue of Flags and champion Capote, as well as a Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine by Slew.

Like Slew himself, both Coal Front and Coal Battle are dark bay in color.

Here are Coal Battle’s pedigree fun facts:

Sire Coal Front is inbred to A.P. Indy.

Hall of Famer and supersire A.P. Indy, hero of the 1992 Belmont (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), appears twice over as a great-grandsire of Coal Front. Indeed, both Coal Front’s sire and dam (mother) are by A.P. Indy-line stallions.

Coal Front is a son of millionaire Stay Thirsty, best known for winning the 2011 Travers (G1) and missing narrowly in the Belmont. Stay Thirsty is in turn by A.P. Indy’s son Bernardini, the champion three-year-old colt of 2006 who swept the Preakness (G1), Travers, and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

Coal Front’s dam, Miner’s Secret, is by A.P. Indy’s son Mineshaft, who reigned as Horse of the Year in 2003. Mineshaft captured seven stakes during his championship season, notably the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Pimlico Special H. (G1), Suburban H. (G1), and the Woodward (G1).

Miner’s Secret is herself inbred to Seattle Slew. He’s an ancestor on the other side of her pedigree too, factoring again as the sire of her maternal grandmother Hire a Brain.

Coal Front’s influential ancestress placed in the Kentucky Oaks.

Hire a Brain is out of Grenzen, a multiple Grade 2 winner at Santa Anita and runner-up in the 1978 Kentucky Oaks. Grenzen turned out to be an important broodmare, producing $2.1 million-earner Twilight Agenda and daughters responsible for high-level performers around the globe.

Grenzen’s best grandchildren are Go and Go, who famously shipped in from Ireland to dominate the 1990 Belmont; Refuse to Bend, whose four Group 1 titles include Britain’s classic 2000 Guineas (G1) in 2003; and Media Puzzle, winner of Australia’s iconic Melbourne Cup (G1) in 2002. Her further descendants include Hong Kong-based globetrotter Rich Tapestry, who raided the 2014 Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1).

Coal Front was an ultra-game competitor on the racetrack.

Although Coal Front might have been expected to inherit stamina for a classic distance, the $1.8 million-earner was a sprinter/miler.

The Todd Pletcher trainee won three graded stakes in the sprint division – the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga and Parx’s Gallant Bob (G3) as a sophomore in 2017 followed by the 2018 Mr. Prospector (G3) at Gulfstream Park – and a trio of stakes in the vicinity of a mile in 2019.

Coal Front showed heart when fighting for a few of those trophies. Battling back after being headed in the Gallant Bob as well as in the Parx Dirt Mile, he survived an early duel to hold on in the 1 1/16-mile Razorback H. (G3) at Oaklawn Park. Coal Front also had to display resolve in his richest victory, the $1.5 million Godolphin Mile (G2) on the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan, where he relentlessly hunted down defending champion Heavy Metal to win going away by three-quarters of a length.

Coal Battle’s mother is by Breeders’ Cup champion Midshipman.

Coal Battle is out of the hardy West Virginia-bred Wolfblade, who won or placed in 23 of 39 career starts while competing mostly in her home state. But her bloodlines were more reminiscent of Kentucky.

Wolfblade’s sire, Godolphin runner Midshipman, clinched an Eclipse Award with a front-running score in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Midshipman was a third-generation Breeders’ Cup winner. He emulated his own sire, 1995 Juvenile hero Unbridled’s Song, himself a son of 1990 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic star Unbridled.

Midshipman also looms large in the pedigree of two-time Breeders’ Cup victor Golden Pal. Out of Midshipman’s top-class daughter Lady Shipman, Golden Pal rolled in the 2020 Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) and went on to run older horses off their feet in the 2021 Turf Sprint (G1). You might say that Golden Pal was avenging Lady Shipman’s loss in the 2015 Turf Sprint at Keeneland, where she missed by a head.

Midshipman is out of a notable granddaughter of Seattle Slew.

Midshipman’s mother, Fleet Lady, was among the prominent California homebreds for Golden Eagle Farm. By Seattle Slew’s son Avenue of Flags (who also sired renowned sprint siblings California Flag and Cambiocorsa), Fleet Lady was awarded the victory in the 1998 El Encino (G2) via disqualification. But she validated that result by coming right back to win the rematch in the La Canada (G2) decisively.

Fleet Lady became a successful broodmare, even before Midshipman came along. Her first foal, Fast Cookie, captured the 2003 Cotillion H. (G2) and herself produced $3.9 million-earner Frosted.

Coal Battle’s ancestor Maria’s Mon sired two Derby winners.

Wolfblade’s mother, Venice Queen, is by Latent Heat, a Juddmonte homebred whose biggest victory came in the seven-furlong Malibu (G1) in 2006. Yet Latent Heat’s sire, Maria’s Mon, is better known as a member of the exclusive club of stallions responsible for two Kentucky Derby winners.

Maria’s Mon, the champion two-year-old colt of 1995, missed his own chance on the Triple Crown trail due to injury. But he gained at least some vicarious compensation through his sons, Derby heroes Monarchos (2001) and Super Saver (2010).

Latent Heat contributes one of the crosses of Slew as well, via his mother’s side. His dam, multiple Grade 2 scorer True Flare, is herself by Capote, a champion son of Slew who scored in the 1986 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Coal Battle’s ancestor Cape Town is the son of an Oaks winner.

Venice Queen is in turn out of a mare by Cape Town, a veteran of the 1998 Triple Crown trail. The winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club (G3) and Holy Bull (G3), Cape Town was awarded the Florida Derby (G1) via disqualification. He didn’t get as close in his ensuing starts, including a third in the Blue Grass (G2) and a fifth behind archrivals Real Quiet and Victory Gallop in the Kentucky Derby.

Cape Town serves as another vector of Slew’s influence. He is out of Slew’s 1990 Kentucky Oaks-winning daughter Seaside Attraction. Cape Town’s a well-named Overbrook Farm homebred, since he was sired by the influential Mr. Prospector stallion Seeking the Gold.

Coal Battle comes from a family responsible for six Derby winners.

Coal Battle’s great-great grandmother (fourth dam) in the direct maternal line, Palliser Bay, was a hard-knocking campaigner on the Mid-Atlantic circuit. Like her sire, the charmingly-named Frosty the Snowman, Palliser Bay enjoyed her most significant success on turf, in her case the 1997 Gallorette H. (G3) at Pimlico.

Following the matrilineal trail further back, Coal Battle’s eighth dam is Tempted, the champion handicap mare of 1959. If her name sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the stakes race named in her honor at Aqueduct. The feature for two-year-old fillies is a stepping stone to the Demoiselle (G2).

Tempted is in turn a direct female-line descendant of Maiden, who beat the boys in the 1865 Travers. Maiden became the dam of Hall of Famer Parole, a celebrity in both in the U.S. and Britain with 138 career starts on his ledger.

Diving deeper into the gene pool, Coal Battle belongs to the family labeled 4-r that has churned out Kentucky Derby winners for more than a century. Mystik Dan (2024) just brought up the tribe’s total to six, the latest in a sequence spanning Halma (1895), Manuel (1899), Donau (1910), the star-crossed Black Gold (1924) (from an even more remote branch of the family), and Monarchos.