Robbie Norman, Owner Of Coal Battle, Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast Presented By Keeneland

[Wandering Eyes]

Watch out for the “Little Guy.”

Sold for just $70,000 at a yearling sale in Texas, owned by a grocery store owner from Alabama who has had just a few horses and trained by a veteran who had never won a graded stakes race before last weekend, Coal Battle (Coal Front) isn't exactly your typical GI Kentucky Derby horse. But the son Coal Front did it again last week, winning the GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn. Having also won the Smarty Jones Stakes, he is obviously for real.

To talk about the overachiever who has forced his way onto just about everyone's Derby Top 10 list, Coal Battle's owner Robbie Norman was featured on the latest edition of the TDN Writers' Room podcast sponsored by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.

Norman said that both he and trainer Lonnie Briley have received several offers to buy outright or a share in Coal Battle, but they have politely declined.

“What is money versus the Kentucky Derby?” Norman said. We're just enjoying that ride and right now we're going to keep Coal Battle.”

Norman did not grow up a racing fan, but after a divorce he was looking for a hobby. At the time, he happened to turn on TVG when the racing network was showing a documentary on Union Rags (Dixie Union). He was intrigued and figured that horse racing could fill a void in his life.

“[TVG] was showing horse races and then they went into a documentary on Union Rags,” Norman said. “I said, 'you know what, I'm going to do something. We're going to change the negativity and we're going to go out and win a big horse race.' I wanted to change the narrative. I started researching and it led me to Bill Kaplan in Florida, and it was near the end of the year. By the time the OBS sales got going I was ready to go. I thought I was going to go down there and buy a Kentucky Derby winner first time out. That didn't happen, but I did buy some good horses and the first one I ever bought won a stakes race for Louisiana breds. Since then, we've just been hooked.”

Coal Battle was hardly an overnight success. He was a non-threatening seventh in a maiden at Keeneland in October, but that would be the last time he would lose. As a maiden, he won the Jean Laffitte Stakes at Delta Downs. The colt followed that up with wins in Remington Park's Springboard Mile Stakes, and at Oaklawn in the Smarty Jones and last weekend's Rebel.

“I don't think I have Derby Fever yet,” Norman said. “I thought it would hit me harder than it has. I'm just been trying to be realistic about it. I'm a numbers man. I got my college degree in accounting. I let all the horsemanship go to Lonnie. I like looking at the numbers and studying the numbers and, really, we never have had a horse like this before. Every time Coal Battle races he keeps showing us something different. He keeps surprising us. The fever is starting to creep in now that we got the enough points to get in.  I didn't want to celebrate without the points.”

In our “Fastest Horse of the Week,” segment–sponsored by WinStar Farm–we covered the plethora of reasons to breed to WinStar stallion Timberlake.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, the KTOB, 1/ST Racing and 1/ST TV, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley reviewed the Saudi Cup, which was a race for the ages and came down to the winner, Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steal ({Jpn}) and runner-up Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Moss insisted that the latter was best and thought he got beat only because jockey James MacDonald made a wide, premature move on the turn.

The group also discussed the new list of Hall of Fame nominees and revealed who they would be voting for and why.

With still more important Derby preps to be run this weekend, the Writers' Room team gave their picks for the GII Fountain of Youth Stakes, the GII San Felipe Stakes and the GIII Gotham Stakes.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

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