Kentucky Derby 2025: Coal Battle, Admire Daytona work at Churchill

Coal Battle, the four-time stakes winner, had his third workout over Churchill Downs's main track since arriving in Louisville from Arkansas, going a half-mile in 47.97 seconds Tuesday morning in preparation for the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch had Coal Battle going his first quarter in 24.38 and galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.16. Exercise rider Bethany Taylor was aboard.

“He goes better every week,” trainer Lonnie Briley said. “He’s not a big workhorse, but I thought he worked good today. He likes the surface. He came back good, didn’t drink any water, and is playing in the shed row.”

Briley said Coal Battle will have one more work before the Derby.

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Coal Battle had his four-race winning streak snapped when he finished third in the Arkansas Derby. Briley felt jockey Jorge Vargas might have moved too soon when the front-runners in the race, Cornucopian and Speed King, started to fade after setting a hot early pace.

“My jockey got a little nervous and he moved early instead of waiting,” Briley said. “He moved at the half-mile pole. If he had waited until the five-sixteenths pole, he would have had a quick turn of foot and they would have been playing catch-up.”

Prior to the Arkansas Derby, Coal Battle posted wins in the Grade 2 Rebel and the listed Smarty Jones. At 2, he won the Jean Laffite at Delta Downs and the Springboard Mile at Remington.

Also Tuesday at Churchill Downs, the U.A.E. Derby winner Admire Daytona worked a half-mile in 53.62 seconds, according to Welsch. The move was the first since Admire Daytona arrived at Churchill two weeks ago. His exercise rider, Yoshimitsu Miyashita, said it was styled similarly to one the colt had before he won the UAE Derby on March 29.

“With only [four] weeks between races, we just prepped him the same way we did in Dubai,” Miyashita told the Churchill Downs communications department. “We let him decide what he wanted to do over the four furlongs. He increased his speed a bit in the straight on his own and, really, it was exactly the kind of work he turned in prior to the U.A.E. Derby. He has managed to maintain his pre-U.A.E. Derby physical condition perfectly, so we just have to help him keep it until race day.”

Meanwhile, Luxor Cafe, the other Japan-based runner participating in the Kentucky Derby, is expected to arrive at Churchill on Wednesday evening after a 42-hour quarantine period in Chicago that began on Monday.

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