Tales from the Crib: Coal Battle

Mar 03, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Coal Battle poses as a yearling

Coal Battle poses as a yearling (Photo courtesy of Hume Wornall)

“From the ground up, this story is a David and Goliath.”

So Coal Battle’s co-breeder, Hume Wornall, aptly describes the tale of the blue-collar colt who became a millionaire, and the pro tem Kentucky Derby (G1) points leader, in the Feb. 23 Rebel (G2).

Although Coal Battle has high-profile ancestors in his pedigree, most prominently the oft-repeated 1977 Triple Crown legend Seattle Slew, his parents didn’t appear the type to produce a Derby contender.

Coal Battle was conceived when his sire Coal Front was standing for a $5,000 stud fee. Coal Battle’s mother, Wolfblade, placed third in a stakes for West Virginia-breds as a juvenile, but she spent the bulk of her career in lower-level claiming races. A couple of times, she could have been claimed for as little as $4,000.

Wolfblade fit the profile of an affordable broodmare prospect for Wornall, the sixth generation of his family operating Beech Spring Farm near Paris, Kentucky, and Jay Adcock, the proprietor of Red River Farms in Coushatta, Louisiana.

The duo have long been known for their success with Louisiana-breds, producing such performers as Australasia, Trust Factor, Bron and Brow, El Dinero, Chu Chu’s Legacy, Budro Talking, Strong Promise, and Midnight Fantasy. Their latest Louisiana-bred star is three-year-old filly Secret Faith, a half-sister to Midnight Fantasy and Strong Promise, who promises to be better than both.

“The Cajun and the hardboot, we get it done,” Wornall said, jocularly describing his association with Adcock.

“Jay is good at all aspects – foaling, raising, selling, and breeding mares. Old-school.

“Jay and I are both hands-on on our farms. Take the good with the bad, usually more bad than good! So many things can and do go wrong on a daily basis. But we enjoy it and are fortunate to be able to do it.”

Wolfblade, despite her modest record on the racetrack, had broodmare potential. By the reliable sire Midshipman, she hailed from a female line with enough “black-type” to suggest that her own offspring could add to the family’s page.

Once Wornall and Adcock acquired Wolfblade privately, the game plan was to start her off with a Kentucky-bred foal who would be raised at Beech Spring. If that first foal sold reasonably well, it would help to establish her as a producer in the marketplace. Eventually she would follow the pattern of shipping to Adcock’s farm for their Louisiana breeding program.

When it came to choosing Wolfblade’s first mate, Coal Front was already on their radar. Wornall and Adcock had patronized the stallion in his very first breeding season at Spendthrift Farm. In fact, they would breed Coal Front’s first winner, Good and Stout, who subsequently became a mainstay in the Louisiana-bred stakes ranks.

But that all lay in the future when Coal Front was entering his second year at stud. In the spring of 2021, his main attraction was how well he matched up with Wolfblade physically.

“The mare is a typical Midshipman mare; she needed a little substance to her,” Wornall explained.

Coal Front “looked the part” because he had a “lot of substance – big motor, big rear end.”

In that respect, he bore the stamp of his own sire, Stay Thirsty, whose line produces “a heavier individual.”

Aside from complementing each other’s conformation, another important consideration is how well a stallion and mare’s bloodlines might harmonize. Here too Coal Front made sense, as a scion of the Bernardini line that has crossed well with Midshipman’s sire, Unbridled’s Song.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Wornall said, just going with “the law of averages.

“When it works, it makes you look smart!”

But he did wonder about the frequency of Seattle Slew in the pedigrees of Coal Front and Wolfblade. Each had three crosses of “Slew.” Their resulting foal would have a total of six, although two would be farther back, beyond the scope of the five-generation pedigree chart. Even so, Seattle Slew still showed up four times in the foal’s first five generations.

“We might be getting too much of a good thing!” Wornall said.

Nevertheless, that was too speculative a question to offset the wide-ranging appeal of Coal Front, and Wolfblade duly began her new life by visiting him. She delivered their colt – a dark bay – at Beech Spring Farm on April 6, 2022.

Coal Front did his part well, contributing the hoped-for substance to their son.

Coal Battle “was always a little bit bigger and heavier-made,” Wornall said. “I was surprised, being a first foal.”

Coal Battle as a yearling

Coal Battle as a yearling (Photo courtesy of Hume Wornall)

Along with a good body, Coal Front is also transmitting a sensible mind.

“Their temperament is very good,” Wornall noted of Coal Front’s progeny, and Coal Battle was no exception.

He was a personable foal who liked to engage: “Walk in the field, and he’d come right to you. He was curious, ‘What are you doing here?’”

Coal Battle would come promptly when called in from the field as well, standing at attention by the gate when it was time to head back to the barn.

After weaning, Wornall keeps the colts in the same pasture together for longer than the typical practice these days. By playing and roughhousing, they expend energy and act out with each other, rather than with their human caretakers.

“I have found through the years that it makes a better racehorse. It makes it easier to handle them.”

Coal Battle was certainly easy to deal with as it was: “You could always do anything with him…He was never a problem.”

Coal Battle “kind of pulled himself apart from the others,” an overall quality that became quite literal during the colts’ playtime. Whenever they would take off running, Coal Battle was a bit slow to get going at the back, but he’d pass them all in the end.

“He was like a Baby Huey type,” Wornall recalled. “He would always be behind, and then you look up the next moment, he would be on top, in front of the field!”

Coal Battle was slated to be sold as a yearling, but Wornall and Adcock had to consider carefully what venue would give him the best chance. Coal Front’s offspring were getting a chilly reception by the unforgiving buyers at the premier sales. They decided to go the regional market route, where a Kentucky-bred would receive a warmer welcome.

That’s why Coal Battle was shipped to the Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling Sale, and the gambit paid off. He brought a solid $70,000, ranking as Coal Front’s most expensive yearling sold at public auction in 2023. You can see clips of him in the sales ring in the video below, bookending the replay of his victory in the Nov. 8 Jean Lafitte S. at Delta Downs.

Adcock hadn’t seen the Kentucky-raised colt until his wife, Terri, and son Brandon sent him a picture from the sale, and he expressed pleasant surprise that the yearling was even better than Wornall had let on.

“I didn’t want to jinx us!” Wornall said, describing that he would rather not risk raising expectations.

Indeed, forecasting auction results is a dicey business. Wornall and Adcock’s aforementioned Louisiana-bred Secret Faith went through the same Texas sale for $75,000, and Wornall had hoped that the “really special” filly would have commanded more.

Both yearlings were purchased by different trainers acting on behalf of the same owner, Robbie Norman. Lonnie Briley found Coal Battle, and Jayde Gelner acquired Secret Faith.

In a wildly improbable twist of fate, the Norman Stables colorbearers could be going for the Oaks/Derby double. Secret Faith, a head away from being undefeated in eight starts, is likely to try the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). If she fares well enough, she’ll book her ticket to the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

Coal Battle has passed his class tests on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. In the process, he’s added more layers to his David-versus-Goliath story.

His sire, Coal Front, is a recent recruit to Adcock’s own farm. Once Coal Front couldn’t generate enough commercial appeal to maintain his spot on the Spendthrift roster, Adcock struck a deal to buy him and stand him at Red River Farms. Thanks to Coal Battle, the 11-year-old stallion is suddenly attracting a lot of attention to northwest Louisiana.

Coal Battle is the horse of a lifetime for Briley. The 72-year-old Louisianian had never trained a graded stakes winner until the Rebel. Before Coal Battle came along, Briley’s all-time leading earner was Suzie’s Dream ($214,300). It’s a similar stroke of fortune for Norman, whose top horse had been Grade 3-winning sprinter Silent Bird.

Because of his lower-profile connections, bettors have consistently underestimated Coal Battle. But he has kept upstaging better-fancied rivals from high-powered barns in the Springboard Mile, Smarty Jones S., and the Rebel at Oaklawn Park.

Maybe those multiple crosses of Seattle Slew are arming this equine David’s slingshot.

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