Louisiana trainer prepares for first Kentucky Derby

OPELOUSAS La. (KLFY) — The first jewel of the Triple Crown is Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. One of the horses in the field, named Coal Battle is trained by Opelousas native Lonnie Briley.

Coal Battle is Briley’s first horse to compete in the Kentucky Derby. Reaching this race was not something he thought he would do.

“I never. Yeah, no, we’ll watch it on TV, you know, but I never thought I’d have a horse of that quality, you know, to run in the Derby,” he said.

Briley adds that when he saw Coal Battle at a sale, he never expected to take him to the Kentucky Derby.

“I was looking for a racehorse, not a derby horse, you know, and I mean, this guy just showed potential and potential and more and more and more,” he said.

Coal Battle raced at Kentucky Downs and finished fourth. Briley said he saw something in Coal Battle.

After a seventh-place finish at Key Allow last October, Coal Battle won his next three races, including the 2025 Rebel Stakes, at Oaklawn.

Briley credits Coal Battle’s willingness to work as key to his success.

“You can pick the best-bred horses and everything else, but they got to have that pump, you know, that heart,” he said. “And this guy, you can work him, and he won’t even wet his lips. You know, he’ll just take care of himself.”

Although it is Briley’s first horse competing in the Kentucky Derby, he plans not to change up too many things in preparation.

“I trained him the same, you know, I mean, he’s working. Probably work him eight or nine days, you know, and he’s been working maybe seven days,” he explained.

Early odds have Coal Battle at 30-1 to win the Kentucky Derby. The early favorite, Journalism, has 3-1 odds to win.

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