Coal Battle, after Smarty Jones triumph, points to Rebel Stakes next

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Joy and laughter follow lighthearted trainer Lonnie Briley around, and on Sunday morning the 72-year-old was elated with Coal Battle, who won his second straight Kentucky Derby points race the day before in the $250,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park.

“He’s full of himself,” said Briley, a native of Opelousas, La. “He came back from the test barn last night bucking and kicking and playing.”

Coal Battle equaled his best Beyer Speed Figure, an 84, with his win in the Smarty Jones. He set the pace in the 1 1/16-mile race and sailed home by four lengths. The win came after Coal Battle used closing tactics to take the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park – and its 10 points for the Kentucky Derby.

“We were expecting to come from behind, but the fractions were slow, so he went to the front like he should have and he ran a game race, kind of romped down the stretch,” Briley said.

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“It looks like he came back really good. We’ll give him a couple of days off and he’ll go back to training. Probably the Rebel Stakes will be his next race. The Southwest is too close.”

The Grade 2, $1.25 million Rebel will be run Feb. 22 at Oaklawn.

Coal Battle ranks second on the current Kentucky Derby points leaderboard with 20.

Briley is a longtime trainer who earlier in his career worked for the late Eclipse Award-winning owner John Franks.

“I was at Louisiana Stallions in Opelousas,” Briley said. “I bred mares and broke babies and went to sales and bought horses and sold horses. A little bit of everything, really.”

Coal Battle was a $70,000 yearling purchase at the annual Texas summer auction at Lone Star Park in 2023. The son of Coal Front races for Norman Stables.

Coal Battle has now won his last three starts, all in two-turn stakes. His streak began in the $100,000 Jean Lafitte on the six-furlong track at Delta Downs and continued with the Springboard Mile on Dec. 13 and the Smarty Jones.

“This was his sixth start at six different racetracks in four different states, so he’s used to the trailer,” Briley said. “It seems like every race but this race, it’s been a little something. This was more or less his cleanest race.”

Briley noted Coal Battle encountered trouble in his debut, but won the maiden special weight sprint at Evangeline Downs.

“His very first start, they were playing bumper cars out of the gate,” he said. “He still won by three and a half lengths.”

Briley added Coal Battle also encountered trouble in his next start, when fourth in a stakes at Kentucky Downs. Coal Battle then had to check sharply in the first turn of the Jean Lafitte, Briley noted, and was distracted briefly in the stretch in the Springboard Mile.

Coal Battle is 4 for 6 in his career. He is based this meet at Oaklawn.

"He's fun," Briley said.

Just like his trainer.

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