If the past few months had occurred in the days of landlines and long-distance fees, Jay Adcock's phone number at Red River Farms would have generated quite a windfall for Ma Bell.
The farm, near Coushatta, La., is home of hot regional sire Coal Front, who has had Kentucky Derby (G1) hopeful Coal Battle carrying his flag since an eye-catching debut in July 2024 at Evangeline Downs through a run of four straight stakes wins topped by a clear score in the Rebel Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park.
How powerful has Coal Battle's performance been in generating interest in Coal Front? As Adcock and Red River have been prominent in Louisiana racing for years, he figured he'd met just about everyone in the state involved in the pursuit. But as Coal Front will surpass 100 covers this year, Adcock has met a few new people from the Bayou State, not to mention breeders from a dozen other states.
"That's unheard of for me," Adcock said. "I mean, we sometimes get Texas mares, Mississippi mares; maybe a mare from Oklahoma. But we have them from Tennessee, Arizona, Wyoming—even Montana. They're coming out of the woodwork. It's exciting."
Adcock and three or four other partners purchased Coal Front ahead of the 2025 breeding season and moved him to Louisiana from his previous home at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington, where he'd stood for five years. After standing for $5,000 at Spendthrift, he is priced at $2,000 at Red River.
The purchase of Coal Front was years in the making. Adcock and Hume Wornall attended the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and took some time to venture to Spendthrift to see new stallions Mitole and Maximus Mischief .
"We ended up breeding to both of those horses, but they said they had another new horse as well who had only been there a few days. It was Coal Front and we thought he was a nice-looking horse, but at the time, we really didn't think we had a mare that would fit him," Adcock said. "And then this mare comes along a few days later that we buy at the Keeneland sale and we sent her out to Coal Front."
That mare, Ready Witted by More Than Ready, would produce Good and Stout, who would go on to become the first winner for Coal Front when he won on debut in June 2023. Since then, he's added a victory in the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile Stakes and placings in five other stakes for Louisiana-breds.
Adcock and Wornall also are the breeders of Coal Battle, who Red River Farms consigned to the 2023 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling Sale, where he'd sell for $70,000 to Robbie Norman's Power Racing. Coal Battle would become the first graded stakes winner for Coal Front.
"We were pleased with Good and Stout; he's been a useful horse down here. He participates in the weekend races, and if he doesn't win, he shows up," Adcock said. "Then Coal Battle won his maiden race; so here's two horses by Coal Front for us. We thought then that maybe we should pursue this horse."
Knowing how competitive Kentucky is for stallions, Adcock planted the seed in those years, expressing interest in Coal Front with Spendthrift. That would all come together for this season.
"So we ended up buying him and it's been a good decision for us," Adcock said. "He's done a great job for us."
A winner of six stakes, including the 2017 Amsterdam Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course and the 2019 Godolphin Mile Stakes (G2) at Meydan, Coal Front boasts 38 winners and six stakes winners from 65 starters in three crops of racing age. He picked up another graded stakes winner this year when Crazy Mason won the Carter Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct.
Another partner on Coal Front, Nathan Granger, grew up in a racing family. He says his father put a 13-year-old Shane Sellers on his first winner in a bush race in Louisiana.
Reached April 29, Granger, of Erath, had just wrapped up getting a haircut ahead of a planned trip to the Kentucky Derby (G1). He and Adcock also are the breeders of Blue Fire, a multiple stakes winner against state-breds in Louisiana who will make her graded stakes debut in the Eight Belles Stakes (G2) Friday at Churchill Downs. Trained by Racing Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Blue Fire is a daughter of Aurelius Maximus—another Red River Farms stallion Granger partners on.
"I think everyone who has ever been in this business knows that luck is so much better than skill," Granger said of Coal Front's success. "We got lucky. We thought he'd be a great horse for our program, our regional program, but it's been so much more. The stars lined up for us."
Of course, working with the right people can help that luck along. Granger and Adcock partner on about 20 mares as well as stallions.
"Jay is so experienced and so good at what he does," Granger said. "He does a lot of old-school stuff. He's pretty darn good."
As of April 29, if Adcock can find someone to handle the stallions at the farm, he plans to attend the Kentucky Derby for the first time. He said it's been great to see so many people in Louisiana rally around Coal Battle.
"We're a tight-knit bunch here, probably a couple hundred of us breeders in Louisiana," Adcock said. "Most of us have jobs and do this on the side. It's been great to hear from so many of them. They've been calling and texting. It's really a feel-good story."
