Flatter: How Coal Battle became kids’ choice for Kentucky Derby

Louisville, Ky.

There is no substitute for being there to cover a story, especially ones that seems to materialize completely out of thin air.

Kentucky Derby 2025 provided one such yarn Thursday morning. It was not long after Coal Battle went to the track and returned to barn 42 near the northeast corner of the stable area.

Waiting to meet the dark brown colt was a group of kids from around the Louisville area. This was not just some random class from a nearby elementary school. They are foster children who have been helped by Operation Open Arms.

Cathy Bailey, who used to be a schoolteacher, also used to be the U.S. ambassador to Latvia under President George W. Bush. She and her husband Irv Bailey organized their private charity 30 years ago to look after children whose mothers are in prison.

The Baileys and a few other adults brought about a dozen children ages 2-10 to the backside Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. EDT. They had an 8 o’clock date with trainer Lonnie Briley and assistant Bethany Taylor. And with Coal Battle, owner Robbie Norman’s horse who was chosen by the kids to win the Derby next Saturday.

“This all came together in a very short window of time,” Cathy Bailey said. “They all drew pictures of the horse last night and brought them today to present to the trainer.”

After Taylor led the group to a grassy area behind the barn and next to the fence bordered by Longfield Avenue, they watched as Coal Battle and another horse were getting baths. The restlessness that comes with being a kid was replaced by their simple fascination with big animals getting some TLC from caring humans. Talk about an allegory.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Briley emerged from his barn office to greet the Baileys and the children. With the comportment of a kindly uncle, he spoke with them one by one, asking each of their names and adoring the crayon artwork that had been handed to him in a yellow folder.

“These are very nice,” he said. “We’ll hang these on the wall to represent these children.”

After Briley met with them, he said he was feeling a little under the weather, so he retreated briefly into the barn while Taylor and the other adults gathered everyone for photos.

The group was led to the shed-row wall so they could peer into Coal Battle’s stall from a safe distance and see their Derby horse standing and resting and taking in the scene, occasionally tapping a jolly ball with his nose.

Briley then re-emerged to visit some more with the children. He might have needed a breather, but he could not resist. It was completely in keeping with the man whose popularity is growing with each passing day leading up to the Derby.

At 72, Briley is a one-of-a-kind, run-for-the-roses rookie. Not too many trainers did their apprenticeship working for their fathers in Louisiana oil fields. And not too many oilmen know the inner workings of a horse right down to the names and shapes and functions of all 216 of their bones. That is Briley.

With his genial drawl that makes one wonder why there can’t be more folks like him, Briley turns a phrase without being off-putting.

Asked once why he had a model of a horse’s skeleton in his office, he said, “He don’t eat nothing.”

Urged to follow his equine muse and go to work for a veterinarian, he joked that “I can’t work for anybody that’s dumber than me.”

He repeated a line for the kids that did well with a gaggle of reporters Tuesday when he said his Derby day wardrobe would be “a pair of short pants with my cap turned backward.”

Briley also captured the theme of the day when he compared Coal Battle with the children of Operation Open Arms.

“He’s not a big horse, but he’s got a lot of heart,” he said. “It’s just like these children. They need to have a lot of heart to go forward with what they go through in life.”

Underdogs supporting an underdog. And vice-versa.

It was more than symbolic. Briley had not let on about why he was under the weather. He confided it quietly, away from the children.

“I just had surgery a few months ago,” he said. “My stomach came up above my esophagus, and they had to go in and fix that. I still need to rest a little every now and then.”

Briley said he had not told many people about the emergency, so simply saying he was feeling a little ill was a way he could gracefully take an occasional break.

As if this story could not get any more heartwarming, it was punctuated when Briley walked up to the Baileys and offered them a cash donation for Operation Open Arms. Cathy Bailey clearly was moved.

“You have been so kind,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

Oh, there is one more thing that could happen to make this a perfect story. We will see how that goes next Saturday around 7 p.m.

The children will be watching.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.