Correll’s Corner: Dream of a lifetime

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview —-

Dream of a lifetime

TRINITY, Fla. – Longtime trainer Lonnie Briley is living the dream after winning the Rebel Stakes on Feb. 23 at Oaklawn Park. Briley, who has been around the game for more than 50 years, is headed to the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs with a serious contender for the Kentucky Derby.

Coal Battle showed his grit when he ran down loose on the lead Madakat Road in the final eighth of a mile to take the Grade 2 affair. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. sent Madakat Road to the lead and set serious fractions of 22.47, 45.72 and 1:10.94 for six furlongs. Coal Battle made a three-wide move rounding the second turn and pulled even at the quarter pole. The pair ran in tandem until the eighth-pole when the winner started to edge ahead. The winner stopped the timer in 1:43.01 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race and the winning margin was a little more than a length.

Briley was asked when he thought his colt had the race won and he said, “When they hit the top of the stretch.” Coal Battle was one of the few horses to come from off the lead to win on what appeared to be a speed-favoring track.

The John Battaglia was run on Feb. 22 at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky and I didn’t see much that impressed me. The race was over a synthetic track and that sometime plays well when colts get to Churchill Down. The winner was California Burrito (Army Mule), but the winning time (1:45.98 )was dreadfully slow for a mile-and-a-sixteenth race. The colt picked up 20 points and I’m sure someone has Derby fever.

One of the better 3-year-olds I saw the last weekend of February was Cornucopian who broke his maiden at first asking in a six-furlong race at Oaklawn Park. The son of Into Mischief, out of a Distorted Humor mare, did it easily in 1:09.02 and that was a second faster than older horses ran one race later. The colt is trained by Bob Baffert.

This weeks top 3-year-olds:

Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) won the Lewis.

Barnes (Into Mischief) won the San Vicente.

Rodriguez (Authetic) second in the Lewis.

John Hancock (Constitution) won the Sam F. Davis.

Coal Battle (Coal Front) won the Rebel at Oaklawn Park.

Disco Time (Not This Time) won the Lecomte at Fairgrounds.

Burnham Square (Liam’s Map) won the Holy Bull.

Getaway Car (Curlin) won the Sunland Derby.

Madakat Road (Quality Road) second in the Rebel.

Captain Cook (Practical Joke) won the Withers.

Magnitude (Not This Time) won the Risen Star, but is out with an ankle injury.